…because I hadn’t started in week 1, but I still wrote a drabble for their latest prompt.  (Remember when I got so excited the other day because I’d finished something?  This was it!)

Prompt: a photo prompt!

Genre: wild card (writer’s choice)
Word count: up to 250

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Title: Persuasion
Author: Ato the Bean
Warnings: none
Summary: Months after he left, James returns to find MI6 missing his favorite quartermaster.  Fortunately, he’s a spy.  He tracks Q to a local cafe.

“Come back in.”

“No.”

“Q—”

“I’m not Q anymore.”

Bond took a sip of his espresso.  It was true.  The man before him didn’t resemble the buttoned-up Q he knew.  Nor the hacker of his rumored past.  Something in between, perhaps.  Something good.  He looked good.

“What shall I call you, then?”

“Alan will do.”

“Your name?”

“At the moment.”

Bond studied him, wondering what tactic might work.

“Your country needs you there.”

Q—no Alan—scoffed.

“I think I’ve done my bit for the Queen, thanks.”

Bond fingered his demitasse.  “Fine, I need you there.”

“Now, that’s just a blatant lie.  Why are you even back?  Did she leave you?”

The bitterness was ill hid.  Bond remembered the look on Q’s face that night on the bridge.  It hadn’t made sense at the time, but months of reflection on the beaches in southern France had afforded some insight.  Or so James hoped.

“I decided I’d made a terrible mistake.  But by the time I returned, you’d left.”

Something warm flashed in Alan’s expression before it resolved to wariness.

“Even if I wanted to return, that Q is dead.”

“MI6 specializes in resurrection.  I should know.”

Alan huffed a laugh and sipped his tea.  

“Come on.  What are you doing now that could possibly keep your brilliant mind as occupied as being Q?”

“Flatterer.”

James smirked.

“I’m not saying yes.”

“Good.  Then I can take you to dinner tomorrow and work at convincing you.”

Q smiled against the rim of his cup.

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I encourage you all to read and vote on the real entries for @mi6-cafe‘s Last Drabble Writer Standing contest.  There are some really creative things there.