I don't own James Bond, just having some fun while I can.

This is part of the 00Q Reverse Big Bang. There is a piece of wonderful artwork that is for this fic and that can be found at

beardedwitchpenguin . tumblr / post/156090155301/classified-my-art-for-the-00qreversebang-story
Just take out the spaces

Thanks go to the brilliant Opal and Castillion2 who Beta'ed this monster. There will be 20 chapters in total, and they will all be posted by 28th January. Expect at least 2 chapters a day, maybe three on occasions.

Chapter One

Q watched as the van left with the body of M within it. He sighed a little turning to see Tanner give him a nod and leave as well. The only two people left now was himself and James Bond. Q walked a little towards him, watching and observing as he did so. James was distraught, grieving for a woman he had just seen die in front of him, in his arms. To those around them, James appeared stoic, but Q could see the few subtle signs, the bloodshot eyes, the almost hungover look that he was sporting in that moment. Q closed his eyes; there was nothing that he could do at this moment in time to truly ease that.

"Bond," Q called out to James when he was only a few steps behind him.

James didn't turn as he answered, "Please just leave, Q."

Q winced but nodded. "Of course, but don't remain here too long. Mallory will be waiting for the both of us soon enough," he said turning around and began to head out.

"Q." Tanner stopped him as he exited the church.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Head there now, I'll cover for you." He turned and began to make some calls.

Q nodded in understanding. He walked towards the car that had brought him here and took out the keys. It wouldn't be hard to get there; it was a simple drive, just a long one. He knew that he could trust the people he had around, but he still felt slightly on edge. The plan was underway; he could only hope it would work. He turned on the radio, and let the Classical tones of Beethoven wash over him, keeping himself distracted.

It was three hours later when he finally arrived. Q got out of the parked car, headed towards the small cottage, and unlocked the door. It was quiet inside, but that was to be expected. He glanced around and nodded to Archie, who had been waiting for him to arrive.

"Alex," Archie said walking over. The man was loyal to him and his mother, having helped them when his father had died. Archie had been a good friend to his father, and his mother when he was young, and still remained so. "She is resting comfortable at the moment; her injuries were treated. They are serious, and I would recommend that she be in a hospital."

Q shook his head. "You know that is impossible, Archie," he reprimanded slightly. "There is too much at stake for that to happen. We need to make sure that no one knows she is still alive."

"I know Alex, but..." Archie shook his head, "She will recover; the poison that was used to simulate death worked well and the suit she was wearing underneath was able to stem the bleeding until we got her here. It was able to tighten itself on the wound. The poison we used also helped in slowing the heart down, which slowed the blood loss. Without it, I think we might have lost her."

"That's good." He sighed, relieved.

"I believe she might be awake. She is… a tough woman and a strong one. You should know that. You've seen if over and over when she was an Agent." He smiled, his dark blue eyes looking at the younger man as he brushed greying brown hair out of them. He could remember the young man before him being a teenager and watching over him for Clara when she had been an agent. She'd trusted no one else other than Bill Tanner with knowing about Alex.

"I know." Q smiled back, walking towards the bedroom where Archie had indicated that the woman lay.

Archie walked towards the door on the left, leaving Q alone. Q knocked on the door and waited for a few moments before it opened and a tall young man answered it. "You may leave," Q said, moving past him and into the room. There were a number of machines helping the woman that lay on the bed.

"Good to see you here, Alex," came the weakened voice from the bed.

"Mother," he said walking over to the bed and sat in the chair that was beside it.

"Did everything go as planned?" she asked him, quickly leaning forwards and helped her sit up before she hurt herself further.

"Yes. Bond believes you to be dead, and the body switch went as planned. The van should have crashed and burned with only the driver getting out by now," he informed her glancing at his watch. "Some half hour ago, I believe."

"So everything went well then." She nodded, more to herself than him, wincing as she pulled something.

"Yes," he repeated. "Tanner should be here soon; he was making sure the switch went all right and that the body crash happened as planned. I…" he began but cut himself off getting up and walked over to the window and began to stare out of it.

"Alex." Her voice was gentle, coaxing; it wasn't often that it sounded as such. "What is it?"

"I just don't know if I am all right with Bond believing you to be dead. He… he reacted quite strongly. I don't like the look he had when I saw him in the church after you were taken away," he answered her slowly.

M, or rather the former M, always mother to him and to others, Clara, smiled. "I think of him as I do you at times, a little more rebellious than you perhaps. But we were close. Things happened before you came to work for MI6 with me. They are not for me to tell you; ask him when he feels like he can open up. But I helped a little," she told him gently.

"Why can't we tell him that you aren't really dead though? He is a good actor, I know he can do quite well with that; hell you've seen that yourself," he pointed out.

"While James can act with the best of them, why bother when we need to make sure that it will be genuine? It'll be best to wait for a little while before we tell him," she told him. Someone knocked at the bedroom door.

"Come in," Q called out turning to look at the door, he pulled his gun from its holster and subtly pointed it towards the door. Precautions were needed.

Tanner walked into the room and stood there for a moment while he watched Q relax the grip on the gun and put it away again. "I hope your target practice with that is going well?" he asked walking into the room fully and closed the door behind him.

"It's fine. I shoot guns all the time as you well know. I do have to test out the things I design before I put them out there for the double-ohs, Tanner," he shot back with a scowl.

Tanner laughed walking over to the bed and sat down in another of the chairs. "How are you feeling, Clara?" he asked her. They had become good friends over the years that they had worked together at MI6, and he was one of the few who had been trusted with what was going on.

"Like I was stabbed several times." She rolled her eyes. "How are things?"

"Good. Mallory believes the body to be yours and that you are dead. Bond has disappeared, but we know he will be back soon enough," he informed her, sighing softly as he thought of Bond.

"I think we should tell Bond as soon as he resurfaces," Q said.

Tanner nodded. "Not as soon as we see him. I think after the funeral would be the better time. And then we can bring him in fully, and tell him what is going on. He will be able to help us."

"Very well, but that is still at least a week away." Q sighed leaning back in his chair.

"Have you been able to learn anything more since my supposed death?" Clara asked Tanner.

Tanner nodded again. "A few things."

"Like what?" Q asked him, glancing from his mother to Tanner

"James is loyal. To you, not to MI6. He went against MI6 to help you on this; he was ordered to take you to a safe house. Instead, he took you to Skyfall. And I still can't figure out if Mallory is truly in this or just an innocent victim," Tanner sighed in frustration.

"What about Moneypenny?" Q asked.

"She is with them," he answered quickly.

Q frowned a little at that asking, "You sure?"

Tanner nodded. "Someone is still working at bringing MI6 down, and they have someone on the inside. I know Moneypenny is part of it; I've seen a few things that she has helped them with. When Bond was shot on the train, she could have made the shot, but she was to take Bond out. They know that he is loyal to Clara and not to MI6."

"So we have some higher ups, but we don't know which ones." Q huffed. "May even be all of them. So we are doing this alone? No one else is to be brought in except James Bond? I know that we can't really trust anyone in MI6 as we don't know how deep their network goes. So far I am only sure about Bond's loyalty." He glanced from one to the other.

"Yes, I need to recover a little more before I can do anything to help. For now, you two are on your own until you bring in Bond. Then we will really be in the best place to bring them down," Clara said from her bed.

Q could see that she was tiring. "Mother, you should sleep and rest while you can."

"He is right," Tanner agreed. "Come on, Q, let's go."

"Tanner, take care of him," Clara said. Q helped her settled back into the bed.

"I am not a child anymore, Mother." Q glared at her, almost nose to nose leaning over her.

"You will always be a child to me, someone precious to be protected." She raised a hand and ran it over his face. "As head strong as your father. Always ending up in trouble one way or another."

"You know I will. But he is right, he knows how to take care of himself." Tanner smiled to her heading to the door, standing next to it, waiting for Q to join him.

"Rest well, Mother." Q kissed her forehead.

"A mother is supposed to do that to her child, Alex, not the other way around," she told him, a relaxed smile on her face. It was the first time he had seen such a smile since he was a child and his father was still alive. She didn't have to be the stern and cold leader of MI6, at the moment she was a mother resting after getting hurt.

"Doesn't mean that I can't," he told her.

She chuckled a little, wincing when the stitches were pulled. "Off with you, and be careful. You can't trust anyone but Tanner and Bond. Be safe, Alex."

"I will." He nodded in agreement walking to the door and followed Tanner out of the room.

The two came to a stop a little away from the door. They looked around and saw that there was no one else in the corridor with them. "We need to head back to MI6; Mallory and the others will be expecting us soon enough. I'll be arriving a little after you, since I'm going to come from where the crash happened. I know you have put everything into flux, making it appear that there are random blackouts from the CCTV cameras. And then them rebooting. So we should be able to get back without too much notice," Tanner said.

"We will. I have everything controlled, even set up a traffic jam, so that I will be able to claim that as my excuse for getting back later than anticipated." Q smirked a little. The two began to walk towards the front door once again.

"Sir?" Archie called out as he entered the entrance hallway.

"Archie," Q said looking to the older man. "Please take good care of her. Make sure no one comes in but myself or Tanner. If someone does, shoot to kill. Don't wait around, just do it, understood?"

Archie paled at that, but it was one of the things that he had been told before he decides to help, "Yes, Sir." He nodded, straightening up. "I will."

"Good," Tanner intoned, neither of them liked that option, but it was the only one they had. Too much was at stake if they failed in this mission.

"Everything will be delivered to the shed near the back of the property. Get it from there." Q turned to the door and opened it.

"Yes Sir, and be careful. I don't want to have to tell her that something has happened to you." Archie nodded.

Q nodded back, and without another word, he walked to his car and opened it up. He shivered a little sitting there, it was somewhat cold at that moment. He sighed; this mission was going to be a long and draining one, he just knew it as he started the car and slowly began to head down the drive and towards the main road once more. In his rearview mirror, he could see Tanner's car as well, as it began to follow him. He looked back to the road and headed back intothe Lion's den that was MI6 at the moment.

Thank you all for reading, and I do hope that you have enjoyed the first chapter of twenty.