"M," Bond murmured, staring off into the middle-distance as everything around him went blurry like a heat haze and memories overtook him.

Walking into a beautifully furnished office to see a vision in a dress suit, silvery hair cropped into a pixie cut...her hand gripping his firmly as she welcomed him, a hidden twinkle behind her stern eyes...yelling at him after a mission went south, dressing him down for putting himself at risk like that, the kind of lecture none of the other agents got...comforting him after yet another failed relationship...a drunken confession on his part...furtive trysts in her office turning to proper dates...moving his things to her place...

Once more he wept, more perfect tears trickling down his face.