Obit
Q hissed for what felt like the hundredth time and resisted the urge to angrily swat at the man as he dabbed at the cut on his lip.
"Hold still" Duncan repeated, his tone already exasperated, and the younger man glared at him fiercely. "You try holding still while someone pours acid on your face!"
"It's not acid, brat, it's hydrogen peroxide".
"Is that or is that not a type of acid, 003?"
Duncan rolled his eyes at him but didn't reply, instead lowering the cotton swab and carefully inspecting the wound.
"You're fucking lucky that it didn't get infected, and believe me, I'm gonna be having some fucking words with your so-called caretakers about this too!" he snapped, tossing the slightly red-tinged cloth in the bin, "Not putting any fucking antiseptic on it, I swear-"
"They did their best!" Q immediately protested, "And there wasn't a whole lot they could do while I was under like that, anyway!"
The alpha merely shook his head and gave the cut one last look over. It had been healing fine before he'd poked and prodded it, but as he'd said himself, he'd prefer to reopen the wound and have it heal properly than risk an infection that he couldn't treat.
"It'll be sore for another few days" he finally said, "But it should heal alright".
Q managed a half-hearted grin, his lip still stinging and the vibrant mosaic of bruises on his cheek aching with the movement.
"This isn't my first rodeo, you know".
"I know" he replied easily, no doubt remembering the last time they'd stood side-by-side with a first aid kit in Q's own kitchen with a damp tea towel and a bag of frozen peas, "But that doesn't mean it won't fucking hurt any less".
He reached for the omega's wrist and carefully flexed it back and forth. The memory of the splint that had finally come off just a few days ago brought a grimace to his face and Q couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh.
"I'm getting real tired of these wrist problems".
"Don't worry brat - it's looking a lot fucking better than before. Arkov would've had your head, otherwise".
"Tell me about it! I honestly think that he'd sedate me if I showed up on Monday with a broken wrist again".
"Well, just to be safe, take it easy for a few more fucking days - No more pub brawls, for starters" he replied, before pushing up both of his sleeves with surprising gentleness, "Now, you wanna tell me about these scratches of yours?"
Q glanced down at the angry red lines that ran up and down both arms, and the sight of them suddenly brought the feeling of itchiness back to the forefront of his mind.
"... It's a side-effect" he explained belatedly, "Of a drop, it's, uh… it makes you feel… weird. Itchy. Like there's a million pins and needles just under the surface of your skin and no amount of scratching makes it go away".
"Oh yeah?" Duncan reached for the hydrogen peroxide bottle again and Q preemptively winced. "And how long does that fucking feeling last for?"
"Depends on how bad the drop is" he answered honestly, his arm twitching involuntarily as the antiseptic was carefully dabbed over the raised cuts, "This was, uh… This was a bad one so… so the feeling will probably stick around for a few days yet".
The older man hummed, switching hands, before turning back to the first aid kit and routing around for a roll of gauze.
"Well, fortunately for you, the scratches don't seem that fucking deep, but if you dig your nails into them again, then they will be". Sharp grey eyes cut back to him. "So don't fucking dig your nails into them again, got it?"
"Got it".
Duncan carefully wrapped each arm with a thin layer of bandages - more so to prevent the wounds from reopening by rubbing against his clothes than anything else.
"There" he finished, taping the end in place, "Anything else I should fucking know about?"
"Nope! That's everything, doc".
"Alright. Well, if you-"
"Sweetheart?" There was a knock on the bathroom door. "Is it safe to come in?"
Before either man could answer, Edie flung open the door anyway and then frowned when she saw them both perched on the edge of the bathtub.
"Oh". She sounded oddly… disappointed. "So you're not naked then".
"009!"
"What?" She grinned, sharp and lecherous. "A girl can dream, can't she?"
"All you have to do is fucking ask".
"003!"
"Hmm. Thanks, but no thanks" she replied thoughtfully, "I think Jake might take offence if I did… But if the two of you agreed on it, then-"
"Both of you!" Q exclaimed, his face burning, "Stop! Talking!"
Edie's grin widened, perfect white teeth on show, even as Duncan's cheeks flushed a light red.
"Oh, come off it, sweetheart! As if you aren't hoping to be the filling of a particular double-0 sandwich too!"
"This is it" Q announced, his voice unusually high pitched as he looked anywhere but there, "This is how I die".
"Let him the fuck alone, Edie. What do you want?"
"Nothing" she replied, looking completely innocent, "But the food's here. We decided on Indian. Thought you'd like to know… I volunteered to tell you".
And with that, she spun around on her very tall pointy heels and gracefully loped from the room.
Five minutes later, they returned to the living room. Q knew that his face was still somewhat flushed, and he also knew that both of them had slightly red eyes from crying, but nobody there was cruel enough to mention it - although Alexis did give his hand a gentle squeeze as he walked past her, and Duncan didn't even scowl as he returned to his usual chair, the armrest of which had since been taken over by Jake.
Edie had also returned to her seat on the couch which she shared with Alexis and Charlie. In front of them, sitting on cushions on the ground were Saif and, more surprisingly, Milli. Although, now that Q actually thought about it, he supposed that her placement there did make sense - it may have been "illogical" to sit on the floor instead of a chair, after all, but it did give her much more personal space than the couch would have. The remaining armchair to his left was occupied by Alec, of course, while James seemed perfectly content next to him, half seated on the armrest and half sprawled across the back of the chair, and Q couldn't help but stand there and look at them all and think-
This is my family.
"We ordered takeout while you were getting stitched up" Alec said, holding out a hand to him, "How does Indian sound?"
"Is there any tofu?" he asked suspiciously, even as he let himself be pulled down onto the blond's admittedly rather comfortable lap.
"Not that I'm aware of" he replied slowly.
"Good. Indian's fine".
"You and your fucking tofu" Duncan grumbled, and Q immediately scowled. "It has the exact same consistency as slugs!"
"Oh yeah?" James quipped, threading a hand through his curls, "Eaten many of those, have you, pup?"
"You'd be surprised what being the youngest of four does to you".
"I can't wait to meet your family".
"Moving a little quickly there, aren't you?" he shot back, even as his cheeks flushed once more, "You haven't even bought me dinner yet!"
"Who do you think the Indian's for?"
"Oh please, if you knew me at all, you'd have ordered a Chinese".
Alec looked between them and grinned. "Next time, cub".
"Enough fucking flirting!" Duncan snapped, "I'm starving; where's the food?"
"Keep your hair on, Fortier" Saif replied with a smirk, pulling plastic cartons and styrofoam cups out of the three paper bags in front of him, "Williams, do us all a favour and feed him, would you?"
"Don't you fucking talk to him like that!"
"Boys" Alexis warned, but it was no use, and less than a minute later, they were yelling obscenities at each other once more.
Q couldn't help but grin, nimbly wriggling his way out of his alpha's grasp and snagging a carton of tandoori chicken for him and Alec and anda bhurji for James amongst the chaos, expertly weaving his way back out from the double-0 brawl in front of him to bring his winnings back to his rightful place.
Three seconds later, he was stretched out across the armchair on Alec's lap, his legs thrown over James who was still sitting on the armrest, while the blond's upper body sprawled across the back of the chair behind his partner to steal a piece of chicken from his dish.
Glancing over at the TV, Q was surprised to realise that it was on - just muted - and even more surprised to find out that he actually recognised what was on the screen, characters and actors and the Doctor and all.
"Where on earth did you manage to find a DVD player?!"
"Huh?" Alec looked up from his food - which was balanced precariously on the omega's stomach - and frowned. "Oh… Uh… You know, just… around".
"Around?" He raised a solitary eyebrow and hoped that the effect wasn't ruined by his current position, "What do you mean around?"
"Well, you know, we just, uh…"
The blond suddenly turned to James who looked just as sheepish, before turning to Alexis instead - the only other double-0 not currently in the midst of an argument, and also, conveniently, the closest. She snorted at them and shook her head.
"What these idiots are trying to say, hun, is that they bribed the delivery guy to pick up a DVD player on the way here".
"You did what?!"
"Well… we didn't… own… one" Alec started, somewhat awkwardly, and James nodded. "Yeah, and we weren't going to just... go out and leave you here to get one, but... well, you wanted to watch this DVD, so... we worked it out".
Q stared at them.
They both stared back.
From somewhere across the room, Saif swore viciously as Duncan finally managed to pin him to the floor, while Jake tried to pull him off of the man, Edie whacked them both with a rolled-up takeout menu, Milli and Charlie stared on mildly amused but mostly confused, and Alexis reached for the TV remote and pressed play.
All in all, Q mused, as he reached over Alec to steal back his chicken pieces from James, he could definitely get used to this.
Later that night, after the Indian, after binge-watching half of Doctor Who season ten, after tidying up and moving the coffee table and all collapsing in a puppy pile on the floor, Q thought.
The itch was back, although thankfully it didn't seem to be hitting him as hard now that he was surrounded by his agents, and he distantly wondered how he ever managed to survive without them.
James was on his left, his arm stretched out underneath the cushion someone had placed beneath the omega's head, while Alec lay down on his right, one hand absentmindedly tracing meaningless symbols and words on the back of his hand. The rest of the double-0s, the rest of his pack, were spread out around them - Duncan, Jake, and Milli by his feet, Charlie and Edie above his head, and Saif and Alexis on either side of James and Alec.
Q wasn't even entirely sure how they ended up like this, crashing on the floor of his alphas' apartment in the double-0 equivalent of a food coma, but it was the first time in days - if not weeks - that he had felt entirely, completely, perfectly safe.
He really really really didn't want to upset the comfortable silence that had come over them, but he'd been thinking about this all day - thinking about the club and the alpha and the way that he had smiled. He had thought long and hard, wracking every single square millimetre of his brain and his memories, just to make sure that he wasn't imagining things, that he wasn't confused, that he hadn't disassociated so badly that his mind had decided to connect the dots that were nowhere near each other and-
He hadn't.
He was sure.
Q already knew that the rest of the pack wasn't going to take his revelation very well, and he most certainly knew that they wouldn't have even hesitated for a split second to track down the bastard as soon as they were out of his sight had they not, you know, already murdered him - but if he didn't say it now, then he never would, and he had to tell someone, he had to tell them because they were his pack, they were his family, and-
Best rip it off like a bandaid, then.
"That guy at the nightclub-"
Nine vicious growls echoed around the room as the entire atmosphere soured and each body surrounding him tensed - just as he'd predicted.
"That guy at the nightclub" he pressed, "I think… Did he look familiar to any of you?"
The growls tapered off into confused rumbles and the occasional negative hum. Q slowly nodded, before rolling his head to the side so he could face Alec.
"Did he look familiar to you?"
"Before or after I threatened him?"
"After, actually".
But then Q remembered just what, exactly, they'd been doing after, and he had to quickly turn back to stare up at the ceiling again in case his flush gave the game away.
"Not particularly" Alec replied easily, "Should he have been?"
"... I don't know".
"But you have an idea" James correctly guessed from his other side and Q awkwardly detangled his arms from whoever was clutching onto them so he could rub his tired hands down an even more exhausted face.
"... Yeah".
Nine more grumbles reverberated around him, although these were more concerned than angry.
"Remember that nurse?" he asked, turning back to Alec, "The guy you attacked after the… the stairwell incident".
The man's brows furrowed as he thought, and Q saw the exact moment that it clicked.
"Alpha. Tall. Skinny" he realised, "But- No, hang on, that guy had- had black hair but the prick in the club had-"
"-badly dyed brown hair" he finished, "With black roots coming through".
"... Well, fuck".
"Wait" Edie said, from somewhere above his head, "You're telling me that- that that bastard was the guy who attacked you leaving accounting?!"
"Leaving accounting?" James asked sharply, "When, exactly, was this?"
"Hans Mortner, yeah" Q said, "And it was way back in February when you were still pretending to be dead or retired or whatever".
"I knew we shouldn't have left finding him to fucking Mallory" Duncan grumbled, and the omega blindly kicked out a leg in his direction, smirking when he hit something that swore.
"It's about bloody time that you show that man some respect, 003!"
"I'll show him some fucking respect when he's fucking earned it!" he snapped back.
Q distantly wondered if it was just a lost cause at this stage.
"We're drifting off-topic" Alexis announced, from somewhere to his right, "How sure are you that it was Mortner, hun?"
"... Only about sixty per cent" he admitted, "His hair was dyed, and he was definitely wearing contacts, and probably some sort of makeup to make his face look different. My memory's a little… fuzzy, but the CCTV cameras in the club should be good enough to run facial recognition on, if I can get my hands on them. Or, even better, get access to his body".
There was a sudden… heavy silence.
He sighed.
"You lot didn't leave a body, did you?"
"Hey, you're the one who's always complaining that we leave behind too much evidence, you little menace!" Saif protested, "We were just… cleaning up after ourselves!"
"With what?! Flesh dissolving acid?!"
"... I mean-"
"Oh my god". Q groaned. "And you're telling me that Bill bloody Tanner okayed this?!"
"Actively encouraged it, actually" James replied helpfully, "He's pretty big on the whole no-evidence-left-behind thing too".
Q still couldn't tell if he was joking or not and made a quick mental note to casually run into Bill sometime Monday morning.
"Alright, fine" he finished, "So there's no body".
"None that any biometric scanners could work on, anyway" Edie agreed, "Do you think you can get access to the cameras at the nightclub?"
"... Only maybe" he reluctantly replied, "Actually hacking into them won't be an issue at all, but as for the political side of things... I would have to have a pretty damn valid reason and… well".
"You don't want to tell Mallory what fucking happened".
"Not unless I absolutely have to, no".
"Alright. Then I'll fucking get the footage".
"003, you are not-"
"Send me to fucking Afghanistan then if it'll make you feel better!" he snapped, "I can't be extradited from there".
"Oh please" Saif interrupted before he could formulate a response, "Extradition treaties don't apply to us - and they sure as hell won't if the crime is treason! If a double-0 went rogue there would only be one thing for it".
"They'd put us down like a lame horse" Alexis finished sagely, "And I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather spend my last few days somewhere in Belize instead of Afghanistan".
"Nobody is getting put down for anything!" Q exclaimed, "And least of all for treason! 003, I am one-hundred-per-cent forbidding you from ever hacking into the-"
"Got it".
"Edie!"
"What? You were taking too long, sweetheart" she protested, her voice half muffled by Charlie's laughter, "And besides, the security on Euphoria's website was absolutely appalling! If you ask me, they were just begging to get hacked. Now, do you want me to send this security feed to your email or to your phone?"
"... My phone" he replied, sulking, before suddenly remembering- "Oh, wait, no! My email. I, uh… kind of... misplaced my phone… back at the club".
There was a sudden beat of heavy silence.
"It's fine!" he continued quickly, "I'll just get a new one on Monday. And besides, I already reprogrammed it to explode if anyone enters the incorrect passcode too many times so there's no security breach to worry about either".
"... Explode?" Alec asked, somewhat hopefully, and Q couldn't help but smile even as he rolled his eyes and turned to face the blond.
"Yes, 006, explode - and no, before you ask, I am not adjusting your own phone to do the same!"
"Ugh. Lame!"
He felt the arm beneath his head shake as James rather poorly repressed his laughter.
"Aren't we kind of forgetting something here?" Charlie suddenly asked, "If that really was Mortner, котеночек, then… how did he find you?"
Silence.
"What?"
He wasn't sure who said it.
"How did he find you?" Charlie repeated, "I mean, from what I know, he was pretty… insistent".
"Meaning he was there for Q" Alexis realised, "Meaning he had gone to that club specifically to get revenge".
"Meaning he knew exactly where to find you".
The omega felt his heart jump, and he blindly reached out with both hands, automatically latching onto James and Alec's t-shirts even as they shuffled closer towards him and gathered him up in their arms in response.
"Couldn't… Couldn't it just have been- been a- a- a coincidence?" he stumbled, not even believing the words himself.
"Hun…" Alexis sounded strangely sad. "There's no such thing as coincidence. Not in our line of work".
"He waited until you were alone" Alec added, sounding far less sad and far more furious, "He waited until you left our table and went to the bar, alone... That was when he approached you".
Q could feel the panic start to well up inside of him, but he angrily shoved it back with a sharp illogical! Mortner was dead, for fucks sake! He was dead and gone and dead and he couldn't hurt him anymore so it was absolutely ridiculous to get upset over what had already happened and what couldn't ever happen again!
His grip on his alpha's shirts tightened anyway.
"So what should I do?"
"What should we do" James corrected gently, placing a warm, tanned hand on top of his own, "You're not in this alone, pup, and I'll be damned if you back away from us now".
He couldn't help but smile despite the situation, and he found it reflected it back at him from all four sides. Taking a deep breath, Q pushed away his fear and anxiety and dread, and forced himself to use the logical part of his mind.
"... First things first, I need to examine that security footage" he began, "There's no point in making a game plan if it turns out that it wasn't Mortner".
"But if it was?"
"If it was, then… then we start brainstorming". He tried to shrug, but it was made rather difficult by the fact he was lying on the ground. "Figure out where he's been these past few weeks, how he managed to stay off our radar, and track down who he's been in contact with. Hopefully, it was just a coincidence, even if that does seem highly unlikely right now, but just in case it wasn't…"
"We'll find out, cub" Alec promised, "If this is enemy action, then… well-"
"We're going to fucking kick that enemy's ass!"
Q snorted and raised his head to glance down, only to find Duncan propped up on his elbows by his feet, his trademark grumpy scowl in place. Next to him, Jake was nodding, seriously, and on his other side, somehow managing to look as put together as ever despite being on the floor, sat Milli, also with determination in her eyes.
Feeling hands card through his hair, he turned to his left, where Saif had half-climbed over James - getting a very annoyed look from the alpha in return - and had a mischievous smirk on his face that just promised trouble. On his other side, he could hear Alexis hum in agreement, and above him, Edie and Charlie too.
"We'll get to the bottom of this, pup. If it does turn out to be a coincidence, then fine, but if it doesn't-"
"-then we're going to make them regret ever even looking at our cub".