Betrayal and Redemption

Q didn't want to wait until the last lesson so after Math he went to look for Michael. He knew his friend had Geography first, which was on the same floor, just a few rooms away. He rushed out of Math and waited in front of classroom 111 to talk to his friend.

When their lesson ended too, just a few minutes after Q's, students stormed out like whirlwind, but he couldn't see Michael anywhere. Soon, the room emptied and the new group of students started to gather for the next lesson. For lack of better idea, Q entered and walked up to the teacher.

"Excuse me, sir, I'm looking for Michael Johnson. I think he just had class here."

"Yes, yes, well, he should have anyway. He didn't bother to come and didn't call to say why. This is completely unacceptable behavior, especially on the last week!"

"I'm sure he must have a good reason…"

"If you say so. Well, if you'll excuse me: I have another lesson to prepare. I'm sure you have somewhere to be, too, don't you, boy?"

"Yeah. Thanks" – The genius was worried: if Michael wasn't in school then where was he? What could have happened? Was everything all right?

Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q

Q was climbing the stairs to go to Grammar when he heard the commotion: shouting, screaming, running around, things falling and… SHOOTING? What the hell?

It was all coming from the direction of the main entrance so people were fleeing upstairs. Q had to literally fight his way through them to go to the opposite way: downstairs. He had to see what was happening!

As soon as he reached the ground floor he was greeted by the most terrible sight he had ever had the misfortune to encounter: Michael Johnson Jr. was standing in the middle of a circle of frightened, crying students and teachers, waving around a pistol and shouting at everyone to remain where they were. It seemed like he had shot at least two times into the ceiling. Luckily nobody looked to be harmed aside from being horrified.

The frantic teenager was directing all the teachers to stand by one wall and the students by another. He ordered to students to stand still and not move, while he turned threateningly to the teachers, saying:

"I am going to kill any one of you if you don't tell me where Daniel Coulter is!"

Oh, God… The teen genius now understood: Michael had already heard about his father being arrested and had of course instantly guessed, it could only have been him behind it all. And now he wanted revenge and seemed to be ready to harm others if he didn't get what he wanted; namely Q.

Q stood rooted to the spot, unsure of what to do. He was not a Double-O agent; nobody had been anticipating him getting himself into a situation like that! But it had happened so it was no use lamenting about it right now. Now, he had to try to save everyone. They couldn't get hurt because of him!

Nobody seemed to want to (or be able to) answer Michael's question, and that only made him even angrier.

"I am going to shoot you all if you don't tell me where that traitor is!"

Q felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Annabel standing behind him shaking and with tears running down her cheeks.

She whispered to him.

"You have to flee! Run! He's crazy! He said he wanted to kill you!"

Q squeezed her hand. It was time for her to learn the truth – along with everyone else, it seemed.

"It's okay, don't worry, I'll take care of it. Just don't go anywhere near him and don't do anything conspicuous that could draw his attention to you."

"What? What do you mean? Don't go there! Danny!"

But it was no use; Q had made a decision. He was not going to let anyone get harmed for his sins.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs and wanted to step out from behind the people crowding there, he saw the headmistress stepping toward Michael, hands raised in a placating manner as she said with a voice clearly intended to be shooting but in reality achieving quite the opposite:

"It's all right, Mr. Johnson. Put that gun down! Nobody has to get hurt."

"You go back to the others! I am going to shoot you!" – Michael was noticeably trembling now which was very dangerous in a situation like that, Q knew it very well.

"Boy, don't make it even worse for yourself, you're in enough trouble as it is!" – What was that inept woman doing? She should calm him down, not provoke him further!

The woman was nearing the now panicking boy and reached towards the pistol.

"I am Agent Morrison from CIA. You are hereby arrested by me as the representative of the United States of America and will be handed over to your authorities as soon as-" – At that moment, a loud shook the building as Michael's trembling hand had squeezed a trigger, seemingly without clear intention to do so. The bullet had missed the Agent by mere inches. Everyone started shouting and trying to flee again, and Michael was getting desperate in his panic.

CIA… Well, that explained a few things. Of course Americans would have noticed Mr. Johnson's businesses too and take an interest in it.

Q knew it was time to do something and stepped forward, out to plain view of the trembling would-be terrorist.

"STOP!" – Everyone halted at that, looking around surprised to find the speaker. Good… he still could use his authoritative voice he had perfected with Double-Os then. – "Everyone stop panicking at once! Michael, I'm here. I heard you were looking for me."

"You!" – Accused the older boy, pointing the gun at him. – "You betrayed me! You were the only one who knew about the study! You had the opportunity to get in there during the party. It was you all along, working with that CIA-woman!"

"Now, don't insult me! I was of course not working with her. I have nothing to do with her." – He didn't even try to deny the rest. Everything else was true after all and he was a lot of things, but a coward he was not. He was ready to take responsibility for his actions.

"And then who are you working for?"

"I'm afraid I'm not in liberty to say. But I can assure you, it's not the CIA and certainly not that… lady."

"You're not Daniel Coulter, are you?"

Q turned to look Annabel in the eyes apologetically as he answered Michael's question.

"No. I am indeed not."

He saw Annabel let out a sob and run away, and heard Michael give a cry that sounded like a wounded animal's shout.

"What's your name then? Your real name?"

He turned back to his ex-friend.

"I can't tell you that either. My real name is not relevant anyway. It's long forgotten. It's not me anymore. Look, let's take this conversation out to the schoolyard, all right? You are about to shoot me after all; surely, you don't want innocent people to have to witness such a brutality?"

"Innocent? You're a funny one. Nobody is innocent in a world where your best friend betrays you and then revels himself to be a secret agent who had just been pretending to be friends with you all the time!"

"All right but you only want to kill me, nobody else. Please, then at least let them go! Not anyone can take the sight of blood…"

"Is it a secret agent trick?"

"No! I'm not a secret agent and it's not a trick. I just don't want all these people's lives to be ruined; that's all. It is a huge shock already for them."

"Oh, and what about my life? You took away my father and threw dirt at us all! You destroyed our family!"

"I know. I am very sorry. You can't even begin to imagine how much."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

"No, it's not. It's just the truth. It's not supposed to do anything. Please, let's either go out just the two of us or send out everyone else from here. Please."

"The students can go upstairs. But move it then! Teachers stay! And you, CIA – I'm sure you're the one who broke into our house! You may not have worked together but both of you had a common aim: to take away my own and my sister's future! You are going to pay just like this little shit here."

The students soon disappeared and the two once-best friends remained staring at each other. One had a gun pointing at the other who stood his own calmly. The teachers whimpered – a background noise Q was barely registering and quite frankly couldn't care less about.

It was just between the two of them now.

"So, Michael. You're really going to shoot me? Do you think that would help your situation? Because as I see it: you're not guilty of anything your father did. And nobody will think otherwise. Your life is not ruined."

"Of course you'd say that! You're just afraid to die!"

"No, actually, I'm not." – Q was somewhat surprised to find he really wasn't. For some reason, he felt no fear whatsoever at the possibility of being shot to death right then and there. – "I want to help you. You ARE my friend, it was not a lie. It never was."

"These are just words without meaning out of a mouth of a liar!"

From the outside, police sirens could be heard. The students must have called them after they had gone upstairs. Michael started to freak out again, and waved around with the pistol.

"I'm going to kill you! And then I'm going to kill the CIA-woman! And then I'm-" – But they never learnt what he would do afterwards because Q – taking advantage of the boy's confused state – leapt at Michael and started to fight him for the gun.

They struggled for a while and the teachers screamed and shouted. Another shot sounded and Q managed to get hold of the gun just as the Specialist Firearms Command entered the school and flooded it with specially trained police officers dressed in bulletproof vests and armed with non-lethal and lethal weapons as well.

The struggle ended with Michael giving up and being hauled away by a police officer in handcuffs. Q remained on the floor, totally spent. He could hear the teachers' shouts but couldn't make out the words. The gun in his hand felt heavy so he emptied it swiftly of the remaining bullets then dropped it. He could hear the 'headmistress' (presumably rather ex-headmistress now) above everyone else screaming about CIA protocols and threatening everyone with calling her boss. Q didn't care one way or another. In just a few minutes he had lost his first best friend and his first… whatever Annabel had been or could have been.

He didn't hear the ambulance arrive, didn't realize the doctors running to him or asking him questions… When he finally passed out he welcomed the sudden peace.

Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q

It didn't last long though. Q came to in the ambulance while he was being treated for… what was it again? He looked around confusedly until finally one of the doctors realized he was awake.

"Hey, young man, please, don't move. It is going to be all right, you're going to be fine. Just hold still."

"What happened?" – Asked Q and struggled to free his left arm from the grip of another doctor. – "What's wrong with me?"

"Aside from you being severely malnourished you mean?" – The doctor looked rather disdainful at his, Q now noticed, bare torso, quite specifically at his protruding ribs. He blushed in embarrassment. How dare they…? – "You were shot while wrestling for the gun with that madman-"

"Michael's NOT a madman!"

"— in your left shoulder. You're lucky it didn't go a few inches nearer to your chest. We wouldn't be sitting here so calmly talking about it now."

"You're calling that CALM? Someone's trying to rip off my arm!"

"No, Doctor Madison is just trying to treat you. We have to stop the bleeding. As skinny as you are, you really can't afford losing any more blood."

Q looked at the other man – presumably Doctor Madison – who waved to him friendly.

"That's right, young man, so please, keep still."

Q sighed but leaned back on the stretcher and let them do their work. He had been shot? He hadn't felt it, and still didn't feel any pain. How was that possible? He had heard about shock of course but if that worked so well, he didn't understand why people talked about it as if it were a bad thing…

The door of the ambulance was opened, so he could see the chaos outside. Students were running everywhere, with the police trying to calm them down and stir them together to make sure everyone was all right. A few other ambulance doctors talked to everyone, looked them over, probably searching for injuries. It looked like a few parents had arrived as well, looking frantically for their children. Those who had already found each other, were hugging the trembling and crying children. Funny how 'cool' and 'adult' teenagers suddenly reverted back to their child state when faced with a situation like that…

Q tried to imagine what his own parents would be like. Would they worry? Would they come? Of course they would. They had loved him… If he closed his eyes, he could still see their smiling faces. Everyone said you couldn't remember things from before your second year of life. It was not true for Q though. Why would he be normal in that aspect anyway? He could clearly remember little, everyday things like going to the shop with his mother: him sitting in his stroller as a very little baby, looking at the world wide-eyed and with innocent curiosity. Or watching his father work from his crib, trying to understand all the doodles he could see on the seemingly boring papers that had held his father's interest. That had been when he was around six-seven months old. By the time he was one year old, he had learned – on his own – to read perfectly and later he had even taken over the nighttime stories from his parents with him reading to them every evening. His favorite book had been Moby Dick back then before moving on to others as well. Mycroft had said with a strange twinkle in his eyes that it should have been the Economic News instead while Sherlock only declared him to be an anomaly; one that matched their family perfectly. It had been a twisted kind of approval from both of them.

He was roused from his fond memories of a happier time when someone knocked on the ambulance's side to get his attention. He saw that his shoulder had been bandaged and he had been left alone in there. The doctors were most probably outside to help the others. Had he maybe fallen asleep?

By the ambulance's open doors, waiting for him to acknowledge her presence, stood the ex-headmistress, looking slightly worried at him.

"Sorry to wake you. I just wanted to ask if you were all right?" – For once she didn't look her usual arrogant self, more like shy and shaken. She had given up the forced British accent and reverted back to her original American speech. Q had to admit, it suited her better.

"I'm fine, thanks. Sorry to steal your case." – Another thing to feel guilty about… - "I don't think my boss knew the CIA had been on it before we began the operation. He didn't tell me; that's for sure."

"No, it's okay. You were just better."

"Are you going to go back to the States now or do you have to remain for a while to wrap up things here?"

"I'm resigning right away and will probably travel home in a few days. The old headmaster can come back, there was actually nothing wrong with him: we just paid him to take an extended leave. We'll think of a believable explanation for the people in town though I doubt they would be adamant for me to remain. Besides, it's not like there are a lot of secrets anymore…"

"No, there really isn't any." – Q reluctantly agreed. – "What a mess."

"Yeah… May I ask you something?" – At Q's careful nod she continued. – "What organization has sent you? I have never heard of any of them working with teenagers."

"I really can't tell, sorry. But I can assure you: it's not a habit. I am the only one as far as I know. That's why I was ideal for that job. I usually don't do field assignments."

"Well, I certainly hope so. No offence but I think it's really not for children."

"None taken. I'm not a child though."

She smiled at him amusedly.

"No, of course not. Well, I have to go and give my report to the boss." – She made a face at that thought. – "It was a pleasure to meet you, Young Man Whose Name I'll Never Know."

"The pleasure was all mine, Ms. Secret CIA Agent."

They shook hands respectfully and she disappeared into the crowd.

Not long after she had gone, a concerned Olivia ran to him, followed by a frantic-looking Major.

She wrapped him into a gentle hug as soon as they had reached him, while Major started firing question after question at him.

"We heard what happened and came as quickly as we could! Are you hurt badly? Were you really shot? Don't you need to go to the hospital? Should I call Mallory? Or Tanner? Do you need more medical help? Do you need something? Do you-"

"Major, please, let the boy answer!" – Chided him Olivia while running her hand through his hair, messing it up even more – if that was still possible. – "Tell us everything, please."

So Q told them everything that had happened that day in hushed voice, careful not to be overheard by anyone who happened to be nearby. He also managed to placate them by assuring both that yes, he was all right, no, he didn't need any medical help, no, he didn't want nor need to go to the hospital and that the shot had only been a graze, nothing to worry about. (It was not entirely true of course but it didn't matter anymore, the danger had been fended off.)

In the end they calmed down enough to agree to take him home. So after the police had finally reluctantly accepted that no, he was absolutely not going to give his statement to them and no, he would not be disclosing whom he is reporting to but it would be most certainly not them but someone with way higher authority, they finally drove back to the house together.

Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q

Q had talked to M. It had not been a happy conversation. M had heard about the shooting of course, hell: literally everyone in England had, and was very worried about him. The teenager couldn't very well report to him over the phone so the details had to wait until he got back home – which was scheduled for the next day.

The boy didn't know how he felt about it. When he had been given the assignment he hadn't been able to imagine anything worse than having to leave London and go to a high school. He'd had awful days here when he hadn't whished anything more than to drop the whole case and return to his minions. But the truth was, he'd had beautiful times, too. He had made friends and even had a near-girlfriend. He had gone to the movie theater, had played football, had visited a mall and had even attended a party. Tanner would be glad of how much 'normal' he had gotten during that short period of time. Mycroft and Sherlock would be horrified about that same thing. Except that he didn't plan on telling any of them much about it of course.

But now, everything had ended with him completing exactly what he had come to do and it was a bittersweet feeling. He was glad of course to have saved lives and knew that criminals like Mr. Johnson Sr. had to be stopped. He even felt a little proud of himself to have bested the CIA… But he was also immensely sad about what that all meant for Michael and Margaret, and especially about the betrayal he had to commit against his best friend. And his heart ached badly for losing Annabel…

The boy was lying in his bed (he couldn't actually remember when exactly he had come to think of it as 'his'), moping around. Of course when Olivia had pointed out what he was doing, he had just growled back at her that respectable Quartermasters did not MOPE, so he naturally wasn't doing it either.

"Well, sulking then." – Replied Olivia, shaking her head in exasperation. Q just huffed (but with much dignity, thank you very much!) and so the woman found it best to leave him to it for a little bit, swearing she would make him come out and eat later even if it was the last thing she'd be doing ever.

As it happened, it was someone else who finally managed to ruse the boy from his room: Around 6:00 PM Annabel arrived at the house and asked to be allowed to talk to 'Danny'. Upon hearing her voice, Q bolted from the bed as if electrocuted and hurried to the front door to meet her.

'Oh, God' – Thought the teenager. 'She actually came here? Why? To tell me how much she hates me now? How I lied to her? Oh, God, Oh, God, Oh, God…'

"Hi, Annabel. Are you all right?"

"Yes, well, still shaken up a bit… you?" – She asked, pointing at his bandaged arm with hesitancy.

"Oh, that's nothing. It's just…" – Realizing how very uncomfortable this whole conversation would be standing in the hall in the company of the two adults, Q motioned to the garden. – "Come on, let's take a walk outside, shall we?"

As soon as the door had closed behind them, Q started to explain.

"Look, Annabel, I know what you must be thinking of me now: that I'm a traitor and that I am the enemy here. And of course, from your point of view, you are right to some extent. I lied to you about my name, about my past, about… a lot of things. But I didn't do it to hurt you, you have to understand that. I was sent here to do my job, just like 'Mrs. Gibbon' had been sent to do the same, totally independently from me, I might add. I am not from the CIA. We hadn't known about each other for a long time and even after that, we were concurrence, not working together. Well, that really doesn't matter to you, does it…?"

"No, it doesn't, not one bit." – Agreed Annabel and Q's heart sunk further at her harsh tone. – "What matters to me, 'Danny', is whether you lied to me about the both of us as well?"

"NEVER" – Q exclaimed. – "I would never have done that to you. I don't enjoy lying Annabel. I only do it if it's absolutely necessary for the cause. There would have been nothing to gain for the sake of the mission from lying to you about liking you."

"So, you really do like me then?" – This time her voice was more amused than anything.

"Oh, well, yeah…" – He was not blushing, was he? – "I guess I do…"

"That's good, because I think I like you, too." – He was most certainly totally red-faced now.

"Ahm… you do realize that I won't be able to tell you more even now about myself? Not even my name. Which I don't really have anymore, actually, but… yeah. Nothing. Everything is top secret."

"Is it good enough if I continue to call you Danny?"

"Perfect." – Smiled Q but he still had bad news to clarify. – "I won't be able to stay in school…"

"Will we be able to keep in touch?"

"Yes. But we won't be able to meet very often." – He explained with regret. – "At work I'm kept very busy. I usually don't leave my workplace for days on end and when I finally do, I can't just travel here because I have to be available at all times, ready to step in if necessary. To be able to travel here, I have to officially request a leave. I can do that a few times a year. I guess it's all right if you sometimes visit me in London – only if you want to, of course. But this house" – He motioned at the manor. – "This remains here and the occupants have already said I am welcome anytime here. So when I am actually able to leave work for a few days, I'll have a place to stay near you."

"They're not really your aunt and uncle, are they?"

"No. But I have known them for a very long time now, and they are like family to me. They're not paid actors if that's what you thought."

"I have no idea what to think. I feel like I'm part of an action movie…"

"Well, I thought you liked action movies?" – He sighed. – "I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

"You don't. I'll get used to it, don't worry about it. Can we call each other?"

"At certain, pre-arranged times, yes, but sadly: they're subjected to change as work can unexpectedly demand me to stay longer."

"What about e-mails?"

"Anytime."

"Every day then." – They shared a smile at that.

"I can assure you, anything you send to me will be better protected than the NASA itself."

"Wow, so I'll be able to e-mail you my plans to take over the Government?"

"As long as your side of the internet is secured as well, you should be all right with telling me about your world-conquering intentions."

"Oh, good. There are perks to have a secret agent as a boyfriend then." – Did she just say BOYFRIEND? Q felt he could dance! – "These are beautiful, aren't they?"

They have reached the part of the garden where most of the flowers could be found. This is the part where the three of them had been gardening only a few days ago. Why did it feel to Q like it was centuries away?

He picked a flower and gave it to Annabel who took it smiling widely at him. Her happiness was worth the possible rebuke he'd get from Olivia for damaging her perfectly ordered garden.

"That's a Ranunculus."

"It's incredible!"

"Just like you."

Now, finally, it was her who blushed instead of him and Q felt really satisfied about it.

They started to walk into the maze.

"What do you think will happen to Michael now? Will he be all right?"

Q sighed and sobered from his momentary carefree joy.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. He's not injured, thankfully. He's been taken into custody for a while but I'll make sure he'll be acquitted."

"Will you really be able to do that?"

"Of course, don't worry about it. I'm not going to let him or Margaret suffer for their father's sins. They'll have their normal lives back soon."

"Wow. You're really influential, aren't you? If you can make things like that happen."

"It's not me. I just know the right people." – Assured her Q, thinking about contacting Mycroft as soon as he'd arrive home. It's not as if he himself didn't have enough power to get Michael released back to his life in under a minute's time, it's just that he didn't necessary want M or any of the others to know just how deep his affection went for his new friends.

They were walking deeper and deeper into the maze while the sky above them was gradually becoming darker, with a few stars slowly emerging.

"I can't believe something like that could happen here, can you? Oh, sorry, of course you can. It must be an everyday occurrence for you. But for us… It was horrible. Shooting at our school! And by one of our friends…"

"No, believe me, Annabel, it is terrible for me as well. Michael has really become my friend; it was not a lie either. I never anticipated that kind of reaction from him. It's difficult to wrap my mind around it."

"Do you know anything about Margaret or their mother?"

"No, nothing."

In the meantime they had arrived into the middle of the hedge maze where – with the bushes around them being twice their size – it looked like they would never be able to find their way out.

Q turned to the girl, asking:

"Do you like watching the stars? I used to do it a lot as a child."

"Oh, yes, I love it!"

The lay down into the grass to be able to look up better at the sky. By now it was totally dark and all of the stars had become visible.

"I used to love learning the names of the planets and stars and the stories behind the constellations." – Explained Q.

"Oh, I only know a few of them. For example that one is the Cassiopeia, isn't it?" – She said, pointing up to the stars.

"Yes. The God Neptune was the one to place her in heavens but to humiliate her he made her sit on the throne so that she would spend half the night upside-down, with her head pointing towards the North Star Polaris."

"Wow, that's a beautifully sad story. Do you know any more like this?"

"Well… There's the Big Dipper, or Plough." – He said, with his finger drawing the outlines of the mentioned constellation. – "Part of the Ursa Major, or Great Bear. The God Zeus had a lot of human girlfriends, and one of them was called Castillo. One day the both of them were walking together through the woods when they saw Hera, Zeus' wife approaching. For lack of a better hiding place, Zeus turned Castillo into a huge bear to hide her from his partner. Hera was suspicious of her husband walking around alone in the forest, so she insisted they both return to Olympus together right away. So Castillo was left behind and remained like that forever."

"How romantic."

"That other similar constellation there" – He pointed to the right place on the sky. – "Is her son, Arcas, called the Little Dipper."

"Poor family! Are there more?"

"Oh, there are a lot. One of my favorites is there, look; It's Hercules in Roman mythology or Heracles for the Greeks. He was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Alcmene. Zeus made Heracles immortal as a baby by making him drink Hera's milk unbeknown to her while she was asleep. When she later found out it enraged her so much that she swore to make Hercules' life as miserable as possible even if she was not able to kill him. She cast a spell on him to make him kill his own children. As soon as the spell had worn off and he realized what he'd done, he wanted to atone for his deed. That's why he had to complete 12 difficult tasks in a period of 12 years. These are called the Labors of Heracles. One of the tasks was to kill the Nemean lion – that's the Leo there, see?"

"Indeed! Wow, there's a lion as well!"

"Yes, other constellations like the Cancer or the Hydra" – He pointed out each of them. – "origin from that story as well. But the point is: his 'sin' was not his fault at all and he still had to suffer for it. But at least through hard work, he could make everything better."

"Life was certainly not easy for the mythological figures."

"No. Mythology seems to have a lot in common with real life."

"Do you think that works in reality, too then? I mean, is there redemption?"

"I don't know. I hope so…"

"And what's that bright star's name there?"

"Where? Oh, that's not a star. That's actually a planet: Venus. The second from the Sun and the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon. In Greek mythology, it's called Aphrodite. The Goddes of Love, who's said to be a wanderer in search of her lover."

"How sad. Do you think she'll ever find him?"

"She's bound to. She has the eternity."

"And that bright, quickly moving one?"

"I think… I think it might be a satellite."

She burst out laughing at that. "What? A satellite?"

"Not so romantic, is it?" – Asked Q, laughing as well. – "But at least you have your favorite TV shows thanks to it."

"What a moodkiller; I hoped it was a falling star. We could have wished for something then."

"What would you have wished for?"

"For this night to last forever."

Q decided to be brave and kissed her. For real this time. He expected to be shoved away, or slapped, or possible both… But it was not what happened. She actually kissed him back! It was incredible, like fireworks or electricity running through him.

They only stopped when they really had to breathe.

"Wow." – Was all Q could say.

"Well, Mr., I think you might have confused the satellite with mistletoe here." – She teased.

"Oh, no, I would never do that. I'm just creating a new tradition: Kiss every time you're lying on the ground in the middle of a maze during the night, with ants crawling up your T-shirt and a satellite above your head."

"You could take it off…"

"The satellite? I could of course, but I'd need my workstation for that, with a secured computer and internet connection and-"

"I meant your T-shirt!"

"Oh…" – And after a beat. – "OH! You mean…? WHAT do you mean?"

"Is your arm hurting?"

"No…"

"Did the doctors say you weren't allowed any… activity?"

"Well, they said I should avoid strenuous activity for a while… They didn't define it though nor did they say what a 'while' meant."

"And what do you think?"

"I think that the 'while' ended sometime around 8 PM…"

"Good… That's good… It's nearly 10 PM now. Besides, I wouldn't ask you to conquer a lion for me."

"Well, as long as there'll be no three-headed dog guarding the exit of the maze, we should be fine."

"You mean one like Fluffy?"

"I was rather thinking of Cerberus. But if it's indeed Fluffy, you are going to be the one to sing to him, not me!"

"I don't think you'd like to hear my screeching."

"No. I would LOVE to hear your screeching!" – He clarified, kissing her again.

They shared their first time in the middle of the maze under the clear, starry sky.

Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q – Q

By the time he had gone back to the house around 2 AM after having seen Annabel home (there had been no three-headed dog to fight on their way out of the maze), Olivia and Major had already retreated into their shared room and had been asleep – or if not asleep, they were considerate enough not to come out and ask him where he had been that entire time since afternoon.

Q had collapsed on the bed fully clothed and had instantly fallen asleep, only to be woken up by knocking on his half-ajar door before Olivia stepped in.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!"

"Morning…" – Muttered Q still not fully awake into the pillow. – "What time is it?"

"It's nearly seven. According to Mallory, the car to bring you back to London will arrive around ten. I hate to disturb you but you still have to pack and I would like you to be able to dine with us – no objections, young man! – and say a proper goodbye."

Oh, yes, the car… he would go back to London today…

"I'll be down soon."

All right. Just yell if you need help with packing and feel free to take anything you'd like."

"Thanks."

Olivia left the room, closing the door behind her and Q went to take a shower first. He still found some leaves and a spider web in his hair and smiled at the memory of last night. It had been perfect. No, it had been more than that: it had been phenomenal!

His arm was now hurting like hell, but it was absolutely worth it. He didn't even care he was supposed to leave his bandage dry – he had to wash the grass stains out of the gauze dressing somehow after all.

He redressed his wound and put on new cloths.

After he had managed to feel and at least partially look like an actual human being again, he quickly started to gather all his belongings. Up until now he hadn't realized how much of a mess he had made in such a short time: his clothes were all just thrown into the closet, without being properly folded or hung up; his school books lay haphazardly around on the desk and some even on the floor, with pens and pencils to be found on random places in the entire room. He collected all of these and put them neatly into the school bag provided by Major Boothroyd and Olivia Manson to put it carefully beside the desk. He packed his notebooks and timetable for keepsake.

When he was done with that, he pulled off the bedding to take it to the washroom and rearranged his bed.

After making sure the room looked fine, he made his way downstairs with his bag, to meet Major and Olivia in the dining room. The adults have really outdone themselves this time: the table was on the verge of collapse from all the different kinds of bread, crescent roll, bread roll, marmalade, honey, cold meet, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, vegetables and fruits, biscuits, cornflakes, chocolate bars and cakes. There was also a very generous amount of tea, coffee, milk and orange juice. It all looked like the brunch buffet of the best hotels the agents usually frequented during their missions abroad then into raptures over it afterwards.

"Wow! Are we expecting an army for breakfast?" – Ha asked jokingly.

"No, my boy, we're celebrating your success and saying goodbye – even though we hope to see you more often in the future, young man!" – Answered Major and put a plate into the teenager's hands. – "Help yourself!"

This time, Q didn't even think about refusing food, seeing the melancholic expression on both their faces and all the hard work they had put into their last breakfast together. Was it possible they were really sad about his going away?

They ate for a long while, talking about everything and anything – except for last night because Q was avoiding that topic as a plague and the adults didn't seem interested in asking him about it either. Q told them more stories about his adventures with MI6 since they had left; for example about the unpleasant and highly embarrassing way the invincible 009 had found out he was allergic to bee stings during a mission when in the end 003 had to be sent as a substitute to finish the assignment for him while he had been lying in his hotel room with his eyes puffy-red and his face swollen three times its normal size. Q's first course of action – after making sure 003 had succeeded and emerged unscratched of course – was to hack into the security cameras in the hotel room and take some pictures of the suffering agent. He had then converted these to HD quality and enlarged them to poster size. He had even had two pictures printed and framed, then wrapped up as a present to give to Peter upon his return. The Double-O had been totally scandalized about it! He would never live it down of course, Bond and Trevelyan had made sure of that by photographing his every move and facial expression while opening his present.

The adults, in turn, informed him in a more serious tone that according to the morning newspaper the school would be closed off for this and the coming week, with the exams being postponed for the week after that. There would be no more obligatory classes until then but if a student requested, they could attend tutoring held by the teachers in the Community Center of the city. Q found it a reasonable decision, since all the students and teachers alike probably needed time to calm down to be able to return to the place where that frightening ordeal had happened.

Too soon it was time for them to say their final goodbyes and for Q to go out and meet the driver on the front lawn. So they were standing in the hall with Q holding his bag in one hand and an enormous packet of sandwiches and other kinds of food from the morning buffet. ("You're really very underfed, son!") Q figured all the MI6 Headquarters personnel could be fed for a week with that amount of food – or Alec for one mealtime.

"I thank you for all your help. I don't think I would have managed these two weeks without the two of you. It was great to be together again."

"Oh, boy, come here!" – Cooed Olivia, and she wrapped the boy into an affectionate hug for the tenth time. – "I want you to come and visit us as often as you can. I know you're very busy but promise me to make time for us as well!"

"I promise!" – It was just a few hours ago that he had made the same promise to Annabel… And he intended to keep it as well.

"And don't let the Q-Branchers get sloppy; they are there to help you. Remember: you don't have to do everything on your own and work yourself to death, son!" – Chided him Major gently. He knew Q was pushing himself to the extremes but – knowing exactly how hard it was to meet all the expectations in this line of job anyway – he didn't want the teenager to bury himself completely in his work and forget to live his life. – "And the agents are not your bosses. Don't let them order you around!"

Q just smiled at his protectiveness.

"I won't; don't worry."

"Well, all right then. The car should be here in two minutes. Mallory has always demanded punctuality, so I don't think Mike would dare to be late."

"We will expect e-mails and calls from you!" – Reminded him Major.

"Take care!" – Warned Olivia.

Q waved to them from the door.

"I will! And you too! Bye!"

He took a last look at the garden and especially the maze, and smiled. Then walked out to the front gate where he was to meet Mike who would take him back to London.

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Once he was seated in the car, Mike turned to him in greeting.

"Good morning, Quartermaster. M has sent you these files. I believe you're going to find them interesting."

Q took the documents. They probably contained the agents' reports about the arrest of Mr. Johnson and his accomplices.

"Thank you, Mike. I shall read them on the way then."

As they started to drive away, Q couldn't bring himself to open the papers right away. He watched as the manor grew smaller and smaller, until he couldn't see it anymore. Still, he continued staring out of the window. He saw the now familiar places and houses disappear as they gained speed. There they were all: the bus stop, Michael's house, the school, the mall… everything that had come to mean to him something in such a short time.

To his honest astonishment, he found he couldn't wait to come back when he next would be able to get a few days off.

But until then he had a lot of work to do. He had to write his report for M about his undercover mission (heavily redacted, of course, he thought with a smile); he would need to contact Mycroft about letting Michael out; and then he'd have to take a deep breath and check what kind of chaos could be awaiting him in Q-Branch after being away for so long…

As he finally opened the file M had sent him, he thought that while all in all he had enjoyed experiencing things he may have missed growing up, he still thought he couldn't complain about his current life as the youngest Quartermaster of MI6.

In the folder there was an official-looking complaint signed by all the participating Double-Os about the difficulties they had had to face without Q guiding them through the mission in Scotland. Apparently, on the way to find Mr. Johnson Sr. they had been lost four times because the minions hadn't been able to agree on the best route to send them on and had been broadcasting their argument over the comms, forcing the driver to take totally unnecessary turns and bypasses. Also, it looked like his co-workers hadn't perfected the art of managing multiply assignments at the same time yet and had kept messing up the intended recipient of certain instructions, totally confusing the spies about what they should listen to and what was meant for someone else. According to Alec's report, he had run with full speed into a wall because R had shouted 'to the right now!' very urgently but had forgotten to say she had been addressing Bond instead of him.

Q knew he should be irritated about this incoordination but quite honestly, he just felt absolutely fond of them all.

'Really' – He told himself mentally. – 'Who wants to live an average life when they can have an interesting one instead? Normal is overrated.'

Fin