Strong Sensations

It took another two days before they could ship Jake home.

Charlie hadn't elaborated on his condition when he'd called Q late on Thursday night, just telling him that it was serious and leaving it at that, but the omega had heard the tension in his voice, had heard the tight, barely constrained fear, and that alone had shaken him to his core.

Milli had managed to sweet talk their way into getting a team of medics, despite the thousands of other injured people scattered throughout Pemda, and after they'd successfully stabilised Jake, they had gotten back on the helicopter that had sneaked them into the country under the radar. Q didn't know how R had managed to get her hands on a Boeing Osprey - one of the fastest military choppers of all time - but he decided not to question her about it. What mattered most was that Jake was brought home as quickly and quietly as possible.

An MI6 medical team was there to greet them once they finally arrived at HQ, and Q had personally ensured that Doctor Arkov was leading them. He watched the CCTV footage from his office bright and early on Saturday morning as the unconscious alpha was rushed in, far too pale and far too still.

Alec and James had been on either side of him, a comforting presence, and perhaps the only thing stopping him from rushing down to medical the very second he caught sight of blood-stained bandages. They had their own bandages too, wrapped around bruised knuckles that had split during their interrogation of Janssen. James had even sprained a finger, but the woman still wasn't talking. Either she was even more devoted to General Ourumov than Q had given her credit for, or she really hadn't known a thing about his plans in Mozambique.

He didn't know which option was worse.

Either way, once Jake was rushed into surgery - one of the few rooms the omega's cameras didn't cover - he sent his two favourite murder kittens back down to the basement once more. If Janssen didn't start talking soon, then M would label her useless. And there was only one possible outcome for an enemy that no longer served a purpose…

Charlie and Milli checked in on him, briefly, before returning to the helicopter to be shipped back to Mozambique. The country needed all the help it could get at the moment, and since Q had no other active assignments to give them, he'd agreed that their particular skill sets would be more useful in Pemda than here in London.

Put simply, the entire city had been turned into a war zone, and the death toll was still rising. Charlie had told him that they'd found Jake near his apartment building - surrounded by bodies.

Men, women, children… The alpha had killed at least two dozen civilians before falling unconscious, and Q felt sick to his stomach at the thought of Jake - kind, sweet, warm-hearted Jake - being forced to murder innocent people because of Ourumov's drug. Duncan had been right, it would seem. Although the alpha had somehow, against all odds, survived the hormone drug itself, he'd still fallen victim to the rage that it induced.

For a normal alpha, the death and destruction they could cause was terrible.

For a double-0, it was lethal.

Q silently swore to himself that he would never tell Jake about his victims, and he'd made both Charlie and Milli promise not to either - not that they'd needed much convincing. The fury, the violence, the devastation that the man had caused hadn't been Jake, not their Jake, not really. It had been Ourumov and his stupid fucking drug that had turned him into that mindless killing beast, and it was Ourumov who was going to pay.

He would make sure of it.

While he waited for Jake to come out of surgery, he hacked into the man's medical records and read the real-time reports as they were added.

He had been one of the very few survivors found in Pemda, but he was the only alpha so far who had survived the drug. The medical department theorised that because the drug had been airborne, spread across a large city, it had been less concentrated than the dose that Alec had been infected with, and that since 004 was in "peak physical fitness", his body had been able to fight it just enough to slip into a coma rather than die, once the hormones had run through his system.

Q… wasn't so sure.

The problem was, of course, that he had no evidence to disprove medical's theory and even less evidence to prove any other. It was possible, after all, that they were correct - that because Jake was in perfect condition, and therefore far stronger, healthier, and more powerful than every other alpha in that city, he survived it while they didn't… but that seemed far too convenient a conclusion to make.

Yes, Alec had been exposed to the drug more closely than Jake, but he had also only broken one or two vials of the stuff, whereas Ourumov - careful, paranoid, precise Ourumov - would have undoubtedly upped the dosage, as it were, to ensure that every alpha in Pemda became infected. Regardless of how diluted the drug had been, the fact that there was still enough to successfully affect, and then kill, every single alpha in the city, had to mean that Jake had inhaled just as much, if not more, than Alec had… right?

But the drug would have killed Alec if Q had not intervened.

So just how the hell did Jake survive?

The question echoed around in Q's brain as he left his branch for the first time in two days, stepping into the elevator and pressing the ground floor button to visit medical.

The drug had infected Jake, the body count Charlie and Milli had found surrounding him proved that much, at least, but why hadn't it shut down his organs the same way that it had for every other alpha in the city? The proximity of the drug didn't seem to matter - those locked away inside their homes had been affected just as much as those who'd been outside when the chemicals had reached them - so the fact that Jake had been found inside meant nothing.

Actually, the only definite difference between him and every other alpha - that Q could currently find, at least - was the man's fitness level. So perhaps medical was onto something, after all…

He exited the elevator and made a beeline for the private room he knew Jake had been in after his surgery. He'd had to break into the alpha's records to find out that much, too, but he knew that Doctor Arkov wouldn't kick him out.

Pushing open the door, however, he paused.

It would seem that he wasn't the only one who'd committed a cybercrime today.

The room was silent, aside from the constant, reassuring beep… beep… beep of Jake's heart monitor. Not a single one of the room's other four occupants so much as twitched as he entered, much less called out a greeting. Instead, all of their focus was on Jake.

He'd been wondering where the other double-0s had run off to…

"How he is?" Q asked quietly, shutting the door behind him, too afraid to look at the hospital bed directly for fear of what he might find.

"Alive" Duncan said shortly from his chair next to the unconscious man. His grey eyes didn't leave Jake for a second.

"Doc Arkov is on his way" Alexis told him more kindly, "He just had to clean up first".

Clean up… Jake's blood?

Edie held open both arms and he gladly stepped into her embrace.

"From what we can tell, he's got a broken leg, half a dozen cracked ribs, three broken fingers, a lifetime's worth of bruises, and the usual cuts and scrapes" she explained, "The surgery was to reset his leg, but I overheard some nurses talk about internal bleeding, too".

"Overheard?" he repeated, his voice muffled against her chest.

"Asked".

"Asked?"

"... Interrogated" she reluctantly corrected, "But I didn't hurt them, so everything's fine, sweetheart!"

"Yeah". Saif scoffed, looking far less cheerful than normal. "Except for Williams".

Taking a deep breath, Q braced himself and then turned in Edie's hold to finally, finally, face the hospital bed.

Jake looked…

Dead.

The omega felt his heart constrict as he took in the sight of him lying motionless on white sheets. His face was ghostly pale, and tubes and wires ran from various points on his body to the beeping machines surrounding him. The bruises and cuts that marred his skin told a story of immense suffering - as did the numerous red-stained bandages and the thick cast that completely covered his left leg - but it was the stillness, the utter lack of movement, that sent a chill down Q's spine.

Edie tightened her hold on him, grounding him in the moment. He could feel her steady heartbeat against his back, her warm safe scent, like oranges or ginger, helping to settle his nerves, and he wondered just what his own scent was telling her right now.

"He looks worse than he is" Alexis said softly, her eyes flicking between Q and Jake, "Arkov said he's stable for now".

For now.

The words hung heavily in the air.

"It should be me lying there" Duncan said quietly, his jaw clenched tight, "I should've taken the fucking mission. I should have fought him for it more when I was given the fucking chance-"

"And have him sitting there in your place?" Alexis countered sharply, "Subjecting Jake to what you feel right now? Assuming, of course, that you'd have actually survived the drug in the first place because from where I'm standing? The fact that Jake did survive was nothing short of a fucking miracle!"

Duncan's gaze still didn't leave the bed.

"I don't understand how he survived it" Q said, his voice barely above a whisper, "It just… It doesn't make any sense".

"Maybe it's not supposed to, sweetheart" Edie replied gently, "Maybe he survived because he's… different".

Q wanted to argue, to insist that there had to be a logical explanation, but he couldn't deny the possibility. Jake had always been exceptional - all of the double-0s were - but was that enough to defy a deadly chemical weapon? Would Alec have survived too, even if Q hadn't used his omegian scent against him?

Before he could dwell on it further, the door opened, and Doctor Arkov walked in, drained and exhausted but with a determined look on his face.

"Quartermaster" he greeted, "Double-0s".

"What's the situation, doc?" Saif immediately asked, his constant charming grin entirely absent, making him look just wrong.

"004 is currently stable, but he's not out of the woods yet" Arkov replied, "The internal bleeding was extensive, and he lost a lot of blood before we got to him. Between that, and the fact that we have no idea how his body reacted to the drug…"

Q swallowed hard. "What are his chances?"

The doctor sighed and walked over to one of the numerous machines attached to Jake, fiddling with one of the knobs on it.

"We've done everything we can" he said, almost softly, "The rest is up to him. His body needs time to heal, and he's strong, but this… this will be a long recovery".

For the first time, Duncan's dark gaze flickered from Jake to the doctor, his face set in stone.

"But he will recover?"

Arkov opened his mouth, and then shut it again. His own gaze drifted around the room, taking in the double-0s' protective stances, the grim looks on their faces, and then on Q, who seemed to be the only one reading between the lines.

"... We're hopeful" the doctor finally said, "The next twenty-four hours will be critical. Currently, 004 is in a medically-induced coma to give his body time to heal. For how long we'll keep him this way… It all depends on how he does over the next few days. That's all I can tell you right now".

Duncan nodded once, sharply, before turning back to Jake who was still pale, still motionless, and still very very fragile.

"... I'll leave you to it" Arkov finished quietly, heading back to the door, thankfully smart enough not to bring up things like visiting hours and maximum amount of visitors in a room full of tense, murderous double-0s.

"I'll walk out with you" Q quickly said, stepping away from Edie, "I need to return to my branch soon anyway".

Q waited until they had not only shut the door behind them but had walked a good way down the hall before turning to him.

"What are his actual chances of surviving this?"

Doctor Arkov gave him a surprised, almost cautious look.

"... What makes you think I didn't tell you the full story in there?"

"Because you were in a room full of apex predators whose packmate is two steps from death" he said bluntly, "I'm not going to bite your throat out after hearing the truth, doc. So don't give me the PG version you undoubtedly gave them".

The man continued to stare at him for another, tense moment, before sighing yet again and running a tired hand over his eyes.

"... His chances aren't good".

Even though he'd been expecting this, the words still came as a blow, and Q had to lock his knees in place to keep himself standing.

"How not-good are they?"

He was proud when his voice only somewhat trembled, but based on the sadness in the doctor's eyes, he knew exactly how he felt anyway.

"I wasn't lying when I said the next twenty-four hours will be crucial, Q. I can't give you an exact figure right now, but if he keeps breathing until tomorrow night… then his chances will have improved greatly".

If he kept breathing. Not when. If.

"004 needed a hell of a lot more stitches and blood transfusions than I was comfortable giving him, but if he manages to pull through the next few days…" Arkov trailed off and then shook his head. "Most of his injuries are run-of-the-mill stuff for a double-0. Given enough time, and enough rest, then they should all heal… It's his leg that I'm most worried about".

"Edie said it was broken".

The doctor barked out a sudden laugh, but there was nothing funny in his expression.

"Calling it 'broken' is a bit of an understatement" he replied, lips turned up in dark humour, "He has a compound fracture. The tibia bone pierced his skin and did some serious nerve damage on the way out. Infection had already set in by the time we could operate. If he'd gotten here earlier, then maybe a full recovery might have been possible, but… I'll be honest with you, Quartermaster. For a while there, I thought we'd have to amputate".

Q wanted to vomit.

"But you don't, right? You- You fixed it? With the surgery?!"

He could barely hear the doctor's reply over the sound of his own heart pounding loudly in his chest.

"We fixed what we could" Arkov said simply, "There's enough metal plates and pins in that leg to set off a metal detector, but the bone should, eventually, heal with the support... It's the nerve damage that I'm worried about, but we can't assess that until he wakes. Nerves are… delicate. If we're lucky, then he'll just experience some numbness around the area of the break".

"And if we're not? What's the worst-case scenario here?"

"Worst-case scenario… he loses all feeling in his left leg completely".

"Like- Like paralysis?!"

Arkov inclined his head in agreement. "It's… similar. Every case is different; some patients recover completely, others never regain feeling, and more have to deal with chronic pain for the rest of their lives... We won't know until he wakes".

"Which will be when?"

"Like I said, the next few days will tell" he replied with a shrug, "It might be a week, it might be two, it might be…"

Q swallowed thickly. "Never".

"... It's a possibility" the doctor admitted quietly, "If it were just the injuries, then I already wouldn't like his chances, but throw a chemical warfare drug with no known cure into the mix… Listen. 004 is strong, Q. Whatever else happens… you must remember that".

Yeah, the omega thought bitterly, that's something easier said than done.

Three hours later, he was back in his office, working on his tablet rather than at his desktop since Alec had decided to monopolise his time again by sprawling out on the couch and pulling Q down next to him.

The alpha's hands were currently wrapped around his waist, his face pressed against his curls, gently nosing his neck from time to time where his scent was at its strongest. It was similar to how the Quartermaster had once woken up months before, directly after Mortner's attack in the stairwell, when Alec had been bruised and bandaged and bloody after returning from Havana.

He should complain - should do a lot of things really, considering how much slower his work was when he didn't have a keyboard and mouse - but after the tense, anxiety-ridden few days he'd had, he couldn't help but bask in the alpha's attention.

It was… oddly peaceful, all things considered, and Q found himself starting to drift off, despite the screen in front of him, the various all-nighters of the previous week catching up with him.

So, of course, the blond bastard just had to ruin it.

"You know, cub, James and I share everything".

"Oh?" he asked distractedly, swiping to the next R&D report. His minions really did have the most wonderful ideas, but unfortunately, many of them just simply weren't in the realm of scientific possibility right now.

Alec hummed and then somehow, impossibly, leaned even closer, hot breath ghosting over the nape of his neck and-

"Absolutely everything".

-and then the blond's words finally caught up with him and even as he registered the double-meaning because - there had to be a double-meaning, this was a double-0, and the double-0s were nothing if not experts at innuendos - his brain seemed to crash to a halt and freeze as James and share and everything bounced around in his mind like a pinball machine.

"... Oh".

He felt a grin press against his neck before a kiss was placed there instead, soft and warm and featherlight and Q squirmed, flushing, the full extent of his position - pinned between the alpha and the back of the couch - only now becoming apparent.

"We tend to like the same things, you know" Alec continued, his voice as even and calm as ever, the prick, "At least, the important things anyway. We're very similar like that".

"I… see".

"Do you?" Another kiss, just as light, pressed against his skin. "We never did finish our talk".

"Our talk?"

"From Thursday" Alec explained, "When James and I pledged to you our undying affection and then R burst in and ruined the moment… To be fair, though, there had been a rather catastrophic international incident that resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people, so I guess I can forgive her interruption just this once".

Oh.

Not just our talk but-

The Talk.

"... Do you really think now is the best time to continue it?" he asked cautiously, "We are sort of in crisis mode".

"It's not the best timing, I'll admit, but there's always one crisis or another around here, cub, so if we keep waiting for a moment of calm, we're never going to finish our talk".

Which…

Yeah.

Fair enough.

"Your partner in crime is missing" he countered, barely aware of how the tablet screen had gone into standby mode, "Shouldn't we… I don't know… wait for him to be here first?"

"He's on his way" Alec replied vaguely, somehow shuffling even closer so that the full length of his body was pressed against the Quartermaster's, and the omega wanted-

He wanted.

But Q didn't usually get what he wanted.

"You said that you share everything" he started carefully, "Does that make me… something to be shared? A- A side piece-"

"No". Alec's voice was sharp, firm. "Not a side piece. Not a side piece, not a fling, not a distraction. You're our equal, cub, and in many things, you're even our superior. We would share you in the same way that you would be sharing us. Equally".

Well, at least that was one concern he could check off the list.

"We both want you" the alpha continued, quietly, "That's all I meant. We both want to have you in whatever capacity you'll allow. James isn't agreeing to this because I want you and he wants me to be happy, just as I'm not agreeing to this for his sake either".

"... You did kiss me".

"I did". Those warm, hot, burning lips were pressed against his neck once more. "And I'd like to kiss you again, if you'd let me".

"Not without me you won't".

Q jumped, startled, but before he could struggle out of Alec's hold, the man tightened his grip around his waist and rolled over, lying flat on his back so that they could both see James bloody Bond who had stepped into the room. The omega had no idea how long he'd been standing there for either - he hadn't even heard the prat open the door!

"I'm sick and tired of hearing you talk about kissing him, Alec" he continued, blue eyes alight with mischief, "Isn't it about time that I got a go?"

Q didn't need to see the blond below him to know that he was smirking.

"Well, you'd be hard-pressed to do that from all the way over there, wouldn't you?"

Saif walked with a relaxed fluidity that always reminded the omega of a tiger. Edie was more like a panther, her loping sleek and graceful. But James… James walked like a mountain lion.

He had a sleek, controlled gait, each step deliberate and purposeful. His entire body seemed to flow with a predatory ease, the type of confidence and assurance that could only come with him knowing he was the most dangerous creature in the room. His gaze was sharp, focused, tracking the Quartermaster's every move with an intensity that was both thrilling and terrifying, and Q physically felt his heart briefly stutter at having all that hypnotic, lethal attention on himself.

Beneath him, he felt warm breath ghosting over his ear as Alec leaned up, amusement and arousal audible in his voice as he whispered, "I know, right?"

Q could only nod, his mouth suddenly dry. The other man's eyes never left him, even as he reached the couch they were sprawled out on, and the omega felt a shiver run down his spine.

"James" he managed to choke out, "I, uh… I should go-"

"You are going nowhere, pup" he interrupted, his tone firm but still, somehow, surprisingly gentle, "Not until we finish what we started".

Alec's arms were still wrapped securely around his waist, grounding him in place as James reached out, fingers brushing against Q's cheek. The touch was light, tentative, as if giving him the chance to pull away. But he didn't. He couldn't. Instead, he leaned into the touch, his eyes fluttering shut as James's thumb traced the curve of his jaw, before gliding down to his neck, no doubt feeling the staccato betrayal of his pulse.

"You left us hanging, you know" James said, quietly, "When you left on Thursday. I understand why, of course, and I'm grateful that you rescued Williams - we all are - but I still couldn't help but feel…"

"Bereft" Alec finished, "Cheated… Lonely… Frustrated".

"But now that Williams is stable, and the COBRA meeting is over, and things have, relatively, settled down again… I think it's time we fixed that, don't you?"

Again, Q's voice failed him, and he struggled to even reopen his eyes - although this time, it had nothing to do with exhaustion. In fact, he couldn't quite remember a time when he had ever felt so wired.

"Mind if I join you?" James asked suddenly, shrugging out of his jacket without waiting for a response and revealing unfairly attractive forearms in the process, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"It's a free country" Alec replied easily, shifting further back into the couch, but unlike the two previous times Q had been sandwiched in between the pair, this time he wasn't turned over so he could bury his face against the blond's neck or hide away completely in the man's shirt.

This time, he was lying face up, his back to Alec's chest, which put him directly face-to-face with James as the man carefully stretched out on top of him, keeping most of his weight on his arms but still managing to press against him in the most delicious-

"Haven't you heard that three's a crowd?"

Their faces were a mere two inches apart, breathing in and sharing the same air.

"Good thing I'm a people person then".

He could feel his heart racing, the proximity of both alphas overwhelming him in the best way possible.

"No, you're not. A bloody menace to society is what you are!"

James was smiling that small genuine smile that made his blue eyes crinkle at the edges.

"Why darling, you say the nicest of things".

Q's breath hitched at the term of endearment, at the heat of James's body radiating so close to his own, at being trapped, pinned, caged in and loving every single second of it.

Sandwiched between Alec and James, the omega could barely think straight. His usual sharp, analytical mind was reduced to a mess of frayed nerves and heightened senses. The juxtaposition of their warmth and the intensity of their presence created a heady mix that left him feeling dizzy, almost drunk on the sheer proximity of them both, teetering on the edge of a vast, jagged cliff.

He could fall, if he wasn't careful.

But he was tired of being careful.

"We want you, Q" James said softly, his voice low and smooth like velvet, "You know that… But now, we want to know what you want".

"No more dancing around it" Alec agreed from behind him, "No more distractions. Just you, us, and what you really want".

The weight of their words settled over him, grounding him even as it made his pulse race. He'd never felt this vulnerable, this exposed, yet somehow also more protected than ever before. The alphas weren't just asking for permission; they were giving him the reins, placing his desires at the forefront, giving him control.

"I…" Q began, his voice trembling slightly, "I don't want to be in second-place. To either of you. I don't... I don't want to be an afterthought".

"You could never be that" James assured him, leaning in just enough that their noses brushed, "You're the centre, pup. Our centre. You… balance us in a way that we never knew we needed, until we met you".

"But for how long?" he asked, trying to gather his thoughts, "I need to know that this isn't just… temporary".

"We're not in the habit of doing things halfway, cub. This isn't a fling; it's a commitment". Alec's arms briefly tightened around his waist. "We're in this for the long haul, just as long as you are, too".

Q's heart pounded in his chest, the honesty in their voices cutting through the final dredges of his uncertainty. They weren't offering a fleeting situationship or a temporary distraction. They were offering something real, something tangible… something he'd never dared to hope for.

He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself, and then nodded, a small but decisive motion.

"Okay" he whispered, "I… I want this. I want you both".

A wide grin lit up James' face, his blue eyes now the colour of the sky as they shined with a mixture of relief and affection. Q felt a swell of emotion rise in his chest at the sight, but he knew he needed to stay level-headed right now. He needed to be sure this wasn't just a dream - or a trick, however unlikely that it seemed.

There was simply too much at stake if he was making the wrong decision, and as much as his entire soul ached to be with these men, wholly and completely, he knew that he couldn't risk everything else right now either. He'd once sworn to himself that he would never let an alpha dictate his entire life again, and he was damn well going to keep that promise - no matter how unbelievably attractive the alphas in question were.

"I want this" he repeated, his voice firmer as the last of fears dissipated, "But I need a few days to… to think it over. To really consider what this means for all of us - the other double-0s, missions, MI6, everything. I need… I need some time before we do anything".

He expected their reactions to be… unhappy.

Annoyed with him, at the very least, or perhaps even aggressive in the way Francisco had been whenever Q had denied him anything. He didn't think they would ever be violent with him, but even just the thought of yelling, of accusations of ungratefulness, of an alpha's fury at being made to wait, made his heart rate spike and he braced himself for the worst.

Instead, James smiled.

The omega frowned.

The man looked almost… proud.

But that couldn't be right, could it?

"Take all the time you need, pup; we'll still be here" he said quietly, his scent just as warm and happy as before, and beneath him, he felt Alec nod against his curls. "We'll take this as slow as you want, cub. We'll be right here whenever you're ready".

And for the first time, in a long time, Q felt like he had come home.