On future plans. Your life, James. Your life.

[lastrat]

Not only are you planning - giddily, I might add - to kill me, but to add insult to insanity, you want to put me under the charge of a teenager.

And I haven't forgiven Vesper, no matter what this-- [Hmph no he refuses to call it a flood] --event has me saying.

The least you could do is let me into the pub.

Comments

[oedipusrat]

But not impossible.

[lastrat]

I'm sure a few hundred hours of community service would even the score.

[oedipusrat]

You could go rogue, just a little, just once.

[lastrat]

I've done my share. [Capture or kill orders kind of suck.] And for better causes than you.

[oedipusrat]

Oof, you wound me, little brother.

[lastrat]

I doubt you're so easily wounded.

[oedipusrat]

I've grown a very thick skin. All that scar tissue.

[lastrat]

And you've had plenty of time to build it up.

[oedipusrat]

Too much time, I think.

[lastrat]

Regrets?

[oedipusrat]

Always there are regrets. Even if it's unprofessional.

[lastrat]

Well, go on. Share with the class.

[oedipusrat]

Share my regrets? And now we're getting so personal, aren't we? What if I would like to keep those to myself?

[lastrat]

Then I'll uproot every file on Tiago Rodriguez that MI6 has. Every score, every psych evaluation.

Or you could save me the time.

[oedipusrat]

You mean you haven't already? Or did mommy put my memory behind such locks that only your Quartermaster might be able to slip through without clearance?

[lastrat]

I don't think she'd have wasted her time.

[oedipusrat]

So you're just being lazy, then, I see.

[lastrat]

Oh, yes. That's me all over. Months on a beach, then a few days running you down. I'm ready for the beach again.

[oedipusrat]

Shall I tell you about my evaluations, then? How good of an agent I was, how I had few problems--at least, nothing that kept me out of field work. What exactly do you expect to find, Mister Bond?

[lastrat]

Regrets. I'm sure you can fathom mine.

[oedipusrat]

Some of them, yes. [Very solemn. He does know some of them, or can guess at them. And he can appreciate that. Regrets aren't something to make light of.]

[lastrat]

[Some days making light of it is the only way Bond gets by. But. He smiles just a little.] You're not going to tell me.

somehow adorable happened?

[oedipusrat]

[Oh look, he will treasure that smile. James, you need to smile more. Come on, do it for brother dear?]

There are many missed moments and opportunities that I regret. The things left unsaid. One would think I would've told mother everything, but ah, that's not the case. I have my regrets, of course, about some of my transgressions. And though I don't think I was wrong in doing what I did, knocking on those firewalls, being just a little bit bad, of course this is a move I regret ever taking. Where would I be if I hadn't?

I suppose I'm a bleeding heart, in the end. Come, James; if I know some of yours, then it's only fair you get to hear some of mine, I agree. We should be truly open with each other. Brother to brother, beloved son to son.

As long as I stayed, I have seen a lot of agents go. I had to leave some behind. [Remember Ronson?] Had to kill one in my time as well. Perhaps Miss Moneypenny would appreciate the idea of not hesitating when given an order one doesn't want to take. This has been a rat eat rat game even before I entered the picture, you see.

I regret never falling so madly in love with someone that I was willing to leave this all behind for. Hm? And though the end hurt you so deeply that you can't even think of expressing it in any other way but anger, you are still lucky to have ever met her.

I, ah-- [He's a little embarrassed and laughs at the memory, scratching his ear, looking away, an honest smile on his face.] I almost regret never getting her that bulldog I threatened her with for her wedding. Oh, she got that ceramic atrocity as a gift, but I mean a real bulldog, some wrinkly, squirming pup. It wasn't even my idea to start with, one of her bridesmaid friends kept on saying it, and of course, I picked up on it, and silly me, wouldn't let it go. She nearly hit me with the ceramic when she opened the gift, but no, it wasn't me! She wouldn't have appreciated the responsibility of a dog in her life, not until she got her children in her life, I suppose.

why are you doing this to me

[lastrat]

[It's almost unexpected, and somehow he holds his tongue through it, doesn't bat an eye to think of Vesper (though his throat still starts to close, like it always does, never enough to make his breathing uneven, just enough to remind him that her memory is an open wound that will never close), doesn't mock him for the embarrassment.

He's almost afraid to hear that Silva gave her the bulldog, and is relieved to know it never came from him.

But the honest smile is unexpected, and he watches, listens, like a good agent, analyzing and filing away information.]

Almost glad you didn't. A dog would have made things difficult. [For the occasions he'd slipped into her home uninvited.]

don't blame me, blame emotion whirlwind here

[oedipusrat]

She should regret not taking me up on the offer to wear a dress for the reception. I would have looked fabulous, let me tell you. But, eh, a tuxedo works just as well. And a dog, well, the idea of her being the old bulldog is enough; the real thing would have been pushing it too far. I was always a fan of pushing it, though.