Fill for the Collab Table, a prompt from @soufflegirl91! She requested Tanner/Q, with Tanner being anxious about Q going into the field. It felt pretty right to write this as sort of a prequel to this piece from last year; I hope that’s okay! Thanks for the prompt, Souffle~
-
“I’ll be fine, you know.”
“I know.”
Hand rustling beneath the covers, Q reached up and rested his fingers over Tanner’s, which were pressed into the grooves of Q’s ribs maybe just a bit too hard.
“Yes, you seem very confident,” Q’s voice teased from the darkness.
Tanner sighed, doing his best to relax the death grip he hadn’t even realized he’d tensed into. “I’m not doubting your abilities,” he said quietly.
“We’d have problems if you were,” Q replied lightly, a little muffled by the pillows.
“It’s just…”
“I’m not usually in the field.”
“You’re not usually in the field, no.”
Q sighed, squirming in Tanner’s arms until Tanner gave him enough room to roll over and they were face to face in the scant light provided by the anti-toe-stubbing nightlight. “I wouldn’t be going if this weren’t important,” Q said quietly, voice gentling into something serious.
“I know that.” Tanner resisted the urge to be petulant; as if he didn’t know Q really had to go.
“I won’t tell you that you don’t have to worry. Anything could happen.”
Tanner pressed his palm more firmly against Q’s back, causing Q to shift a little closer, and even though Tanner hadn’t realized that’s what he’d been after, it was perfect. He could feel Q’s chest brushing his as he breathed, could feel the warmth of his skin, could better see the dim light glancing off the riot of Q’s hair. Could feel him living and solid and present in their bed.
“I won’t even insult you by asking you not to let it get to you,” Q said, a bit wry. “You’re too good for that.”
A breath of amusement worked its way up and out of Tanner’s lungs. “You can’t butter me up into not being anxious about this.”
Q smirked, the dark shape of his mouth just visible on the pale of his face. “I wouldn’t dream of trying. But Bill, you know we’ve planned and prepared for this. I’ve overseen a lot of the details myself.”
Tanner nodded against the pillow, a slight movement so he didn’t knock heads with Q.
“R will be on comms, and 005 is there to do all the actual, dangerous work.”
“005 is there to watch your back,” Tanner interjected seriously.
“Multitasking,” Q countered. “But we’ve done our best. You really couldn’t ask for more on our end.”
Irrationally, Tanner wished for a moment that he would be going along. That he could keep eyes on Q, and make sure no harm came to him. He dismissed the thought; he was under no delusion that he could do something a double-oh agent couldn’t – he just wasn’t used to this. But Q was in good hands – in 005’s, in R’s, in his own.
And at the moment, he was quiet literally in Tanner’s.
No reason to waste the opportunity, Tanner supposed. He inched forward and pressed a kiss to Q’s mouth, long and soft.
“Be careful,” he breathed when they parted.
He felt Q’s answering smile against his lips. “I’ll be fine.”
Tanner wished he could feel so certain, but buried his uneasiness in the back of his mind. He had Q right now, and he would have him again when the mission was over.
((Day 20! Fills “Fear” on the Angst Prompt Table. I have no knowledge of medical anything I just wanted to be dramatic forgive meee. Warnings for mentions of kidnapping and injury, but this is way more comfort than hurt))
-
Amidst the beeping and whirring machines stationed around the hospital bed, Tanner was likely the second-quietest thing in the room.
Q was probably the first.
Holding tightly to Q’s hand, Tanner didn’t tap his food or rustle his jacket against the chair that sounded as though it was stuffed with tissue paper or even dare to breathe too loudly, in case he missed some change in Q’s vital signs. It was silly, he knew; the sound of him sighing wouldn’t override the sound of the heart monitor if Q flatlined.
Not that he was going to, of course. Tanner was just being silly. Silly, silly… and terrified.
He couldn’t recall having been so terrified in recent memory. The destruction of their old office came close, but where his heart had set to beating faster-faster-faster when he’d seen the walls blow out, knowing that this was going to change everything, this time his heart had simply stopped cold in his chest for one beat, two, because he hadn’t known what to do at all.
The fear was still there now, coating Tanner’s ribs like ice, squeezing him, reminding him not to look away from Q’s bruised face, because the last time he let Q out of his sight, this happened.
Again, he was being silly. Q would bristle at the idea that this had happened simply because Tanner hadn’t been there to look after him.
(No, it was double-oh-fucking-five who’d been meant to be looking after Q, and perhaps no one in the service really considered Tanner a threat, but that was simply because they’d never given him reason to be one. 005 would learn. He’d learn as soon as Tanner felt like he could let go of Q’s hand.)
“It’s been ages, Q,” Tanner said quite suddenly into the stillness of the room, nearly startling even himself. “I know I’ve told you to take a lie-in when you can get it, but this is just getting ridiculous.”
Tanner tried to laugh; Q said he liked it when Tanner laughed. He found that he couldn’t quite manage it.
He’d badgered the nurses to the point of strained patience over why Q wasn’t waking yet, until the doctor had come in and explained that Q was stable, but had been sedated for the trip back to London, and would wake in his own time. He’d been through quite a trauma, after all (and besides that, no one trusted Q not to do himself further harm while being flown anywhere).
“Danger’s well through. Normally you’d have hunted down the bastards that did this and seen to their comeuppance by now,” Tanner continued, pausing to clear the rough disuse from his voice. “I used to wonder how much paperwork it would mean for me, but now I just miss that unholy gleam in your eye.”
“D’you mean it?”
Tanner jumped half a foot in his seat, startled by the rasping question that came from the bed. “Q?” he blurted, standing quickly to hover over the man lying beneath the tubes and wires.
Q groaned, brows furrowing as he ventured further into the land of consciousness. “Unfortunately,” he answered, slitting open his left eye—the right still a bit bruise-swollen—to look at Tanner. “‘lo, Bill.”
Tanner did laugh, then, so taken aback and relieved and amused by Q’s characteristically calm reaction (probably aided by the drugs they had him on), that he had to. “Hello, Q,” he said, trying to keep the smile on his face for Q to see.
It didn’t seem to work. “Y’look terrible,” Q murmured with a frown.
“Do I?” Tanner shook his head, reaching out to brush some of Q’s mussed and matted hair away from his face. “Unfortunate we don’t match, then. You look gorgeous.”
A little smirk ticked at the corner of Q’s mouth, then. “Liar,” he accused. “Wha’s wrong?”
Tanner shook his head, taking hold of Q’s hand again. “Had a bit of a shock, you know. I didn’t realize I was dating a field agent.”
Slowly, Q curled clumsy fingers around Tanner’s. “Mm. Was thinking of applying for double-oh status. Y’think I should?”
“I don’t think my heart could take it,” Tanner replied with great honestly.
Q hummed again. “Best not, then.”
“Best not,” Tanner echoed faintly.
There was silence but for the noise of the machines for a moment, before Q spoke again. “‘m not dying, am I?”
“What? No!” Tanner rebuffed the question with a little more force than he meant to. “You’re fine.”
Q’s brow twitched, as if he was trying to affect a sarcastic expression but couldn’t quite manage it. That was fair, considering how much of him was covered in bruises or bandages.
“You’ll be fine,” Tanner amended.
“You look like ‘m gonna die. Wha’s wrong, Bill?” Q pressed, awfully persistent for a man who’d been captured, beaten, shot, rescued, and drugged to the gills.
Pointing out the obvious—you were taken, you were hurt—wouldn’t cut it, Tanner knew. Even when Q wasn’t at his best, his questions demanded an answer to the very root of the problem and nothing less. Tanner closed his eyes, still clutching Q’s hand in his own, probably tighter than was comfortable for Q.
“We didn’t know what happened, or where you were. Just that you’d been taken. And the thought that– that you might have been–” Tanner shook his head, the rest coming out hushed, “I’ve never been more terrified.”
Silence again, broken into sections by the steady pulse of the heart monitor, and then Q tugged at Tanner’s hand. Tanner opened his eyes to find Q staring at him very intently, considering he only had one eye and poor depth perception with which to do it.
“C’mere,” Q demanded, and Tanner couldn’t help but oblige.
Gingerly, he sat on the edge of the bed, careful to avoid wires and tubes and any limbs he might jostle.
“I’m on a lot of drugs, I think, because I can’t feel much,” Q enunciated carefully, “but there’re no doctors swarming the room, so I’m probably going to be fine. I’m here, and I’m safe. I know I am, because you’re here.”
It was ridiculous; Q wasn’t meant to be the one comforting Tanner, it should have been the other way ‘round, and yet he could feel some of the vicious fear melting away from his chest under the force of Q’s hazy affection and reassurance.
“You will be fine,” Tanner said, leaning in to press a gentle kiss to Q’s forehead, “and I’ll stay to make sure of it. You should get some rest.”
“Mm… y’ll be here?” Q checked, even as his eye slipped shut.
“I’ll be right here,” Tanner promised.
Not a force on Earth would have pulled him away, and he stayed put on the edge of the bed, keeping watch well after Q had fallen back into a heavy sleep.
regenschirmchen answered your question: Special Prompt post! Prompt here any paaring from Skyfall, that is not 00Q
Q/Tanner
"Sir." He loved whispering this word against Q's skin as he was fucking him over that metal desk he had in his office. It was more functional and sturdy than pretty but it did the job. Tanner couldn't resist pulling at the soft mop of brown curls and exposing the tender throat.
Now that he was no longer M's assistant he had a lot more free time than he had an idea what to do with so he started to watch Q work instead. No one knew about them (at least not anymore now that she was dead), even though the new M might suspect something. With Q working late all the time, especially now that 007 was back, he now also had the time to bring him dinner more often then before. Even if it sometimes grew cold because Q was too focused in a project to notice anything around him, he still appreciated the thought. Tanner always got a reward for his trouble.
