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The afternoon sun filtered through the the London apartment, casting warm streaks across the living room. Bond had gone out to do some quick shopping, Madeleine was finishing tidying up James's study room. Little Mathilde was perched on the floor with her coloring books, playing innocently. She was completely unaware of the storm entering her life. Suddenly, a small, unassuming wooden box caught her attention on one of the middle shelves of the bookshelf. Curiosity got her.
The little girl took the box from the shelf and she pried the lid open. There were lots of photograps, neatly arranged. What surprised her, were the people on these photographs. Some of them were taken of a younger James Bond, in the time where he was in the Royal Navy. But far more of them was from his MI6 era, where he worked as a secret agent. Most of the photos were casual, personal ones. Besides James, on most of the photographs appeared another man, a tall, well built, strikingly handsome man with dark brown hair and tan skin. He seemed like he was from Spain or Portugal. He was very close to Bond on every pic he appeared. There were quite casual ones, like the two of them posing in the sunset on the beach or hugging eachother. There were also various selfies that the two men took, being close or kissing each other's cheek. There were also a few inappropriate and more intimate photos, such as Tiago sleeping on the bed naked on his stomach or Bond taking a shower. The two seemed very happy on the pics.
"Maman needs to see this." Mathilde thought and she shouted to her mom, Madeleine. Her mother came into the living room with a concerned face.
"What is it, my darling? What did you find?" Madeleine asked her daughter with a light smile. The little girl handed the box to the woman. Madeleine took it and looked at it's contents.
Madeleine took the photographs out of the box and she was shocked. She felt her stomach tighten as she flipped through the photographs. James, valnurable and intimate, in a way she never quite saw him.
"Mathilde...where did you find these?" Madeleine asked carefully, trying to mask the mixture of curiosity and unease twisting inside her.
"I don't know, I just found it on the shelf." the little girl answered. She looked up at her mother, sensing the tension in her voice.
Madeleine's eyes lingered on the photos. She had always known James had a past, but...this? Him, valnurable, affectionate, in love with another man?
James had told her about Rodriguez earlier, but didn't told her about all the deep stuff between them. Her lips pressed into a thin line. Shock gave way to disgust. Not at the two men, but at the secret life he had held for so long. Madeleine's gaze lingered on the last photo: James and Tiago sitting on a balcony in the late afternoon, faces inches apart, eyes shining, hands entwined. The woman's stomach lurched. All the feelings she felt, swept over her.
The apartment door clicked. Bond was home. Madeleine closed the box with a trembling hand, holding it tight as James stepped into the room.
"James...explain this." Madeleine said with a trembling voice, she stepped forward, box in hand. Bond froze in his steps, looking anxious. Shit, they have found the photos.
Bond's eyes darkened, as he closed the distance between them.
"Madeleine, I-It's not what you think."
"It is. These photos...you were in love with him? Explain, explain why you kept this from us. Why hide part of your life from me...and from your daughter?" Madeleine asked, voice low.
James's hand hovered over the box. He took a deep breath, the weight of the years pressing on him.
"Yes...Tiago...we loved each other." the secret agent started.
Madeleine's mind whirled. Loved each other? The words seemed impossible. She had always assumed that Bond's life always involved fleeting relationships, but...not this. Not a real, passionate love he never told her about. Mathilde crawled into James's lap. "Maman isn't Papa's sweetheart. Tiago was." the little girl thought.
"When? When was this?"
"In the mid-90s. Before...everything happened. Before China happened. Before Tiago was betrayed and M sold him out. We...we had a life."
Madeleine's hands shook slightly as she still held the box. Part of her wanted to be angry (furious, even) that Bond had kept this from her. Part of her was stunned, seeing the valnurability in the man she fully knew.
"You...you loved him." she said again, a bit hurt.
"I did...I do...in a way. But I chose this life, I chose us. I chose you. You're my family now, Madeleine. And Mathilde...she's my daughter."
"I-I don't know what to say. I just...can't believe you never told me." Madeleine whispered, placing a hand on the man's shoulder.
"I wanted to. But I feared losing you. Losing us. I was wrong to keep it from you. I see that now." Bond told her, eyes looking into her. Madeleine realized that even the man she loved still had mysteries that could shake her. James held Mathilde a little tighter, feeling the weight of love lost and love gained.
Bond sighed, closing the box.
"I love you both, you are my family. That's what matters now." he said.
For a moment, silence settled over them. Madeleine, still wary but willing to listen, watched them. Her mind was torn between hurt, curiosity and love he felt for Bond.
The next day, the apartment was quiet, but Madeleine felt a storm inside her head. James had gone out for a meeting, leaving her alone with a folder she had quietly transferred from Bond's study. She opened the files carefully, spreading papers, dossiers and digital drives across the desk. Videos played on her laptop, surveillance clips, communications, intelligence briefings. Reports and psychological evaluations filled the folders. Madeleine leaned forward, reading everything. Her pulse was quickening.
Tiago had been brilliant, undeniably gifted as an agent. But Madeleine could see the first cracks. Emotional instability noted, intense paranoia, obsessive tendencies and stubbornnes. James had loved this man, but Madeleine could see the fault lines. Then she looked at the papers about M's decisions, the transfer to the Chinese, the exact moment when Tiago was handed over. Madeleine felt her chest tighten. James loved him. And this is what heppened to him. Everything pointed in one direction: Tiago Rodriguez had been betrayed, broken and then forged into something dangerous. M, Olivia Mansfield created (partially) Raoul Silva. Madeleine ran her fingers through her hair, shocked and disturbed.
She understood now why James had been so secretive about him. This wasn't just a past lover, this was someone who had been hurt, betrayed and transformed into someone against his own will, becoming one of the most nefarious people Bond had ever encountered. Her eyes lingered on one psychological profile:
"Subject exhibits signs of extreme abandonment issues, severe distrust of authority figures and a pattern of obsessive behaviour. Emotional trauma is severe. Intelligence value high but reliability compromised. Highly manipulative and lethal if threatened." and the list went on...
Madeleine felt a chill. She could see it clearly: the brilliant, passionate, loving man James had known...and then the monstrous, vengeful Raoul Silva who had emerged from the wreckage. She realized that James lost not just a colleague or lover, but a man who had once been human in ways James understood and loved deeply. Her stomach twisted as she watched Tiago's recorded interviews. His voice calm, almost charming, but the eyes, cold and furious. Madeleine's heart sank. This was the cost of betrayal, the way a brilliant mind could turn on the world when left broken. She could see now why Bond had never told her. How could anyone explain loving someone who had become a monster and yet who had once been so alive, so passionate and loving?
At night, Madeleine paced in the living room, clutching a stack of files and her tablet. Mathilde played quietly in the corner again, though she could sense the tension in the air. James came home again, he went out to get some take out food.
Madeleine sighed.
"Look...I have seen the files, I went through them this afternoon." Madeleine said in a quiet voice.
"Oh...it's a lot to process, I know."
"Well, yeah. I get it now why you told very little to me about this. The whole case is very dark."
"Indeed. The people at the organization, at MI6 weren't even daring to talk about it, because his case was so grim. All of us believed that he went missing and died." Bond said.
"I understand...I understand how he became Silva. I understand the betrayal, the rage and the fear. And even after what he became, I feel sorry for him, my heart goes out to him...poor man." the psychiatrist said.
"We loved eachother truly...deeply. But we couldn't escape the world. M sold him out, betrayed him and he turned that betrayal into fury. She was responsible for creating this...this other self of Tiago, Silva. When I first met him on his island, Hashima... I could hardly recognize him because he changed his appearance. I felt so bad... He was supposed to be dead...but he survived the cyanide. Then, when we had the interrogation with him and M, he told me his story..I was so angry at M, can you imagine? I was so angry at her, because of Tiago and because of me. She done the same to me. "Take the bloody shot." was what she said when we were chasing one of Silva's men in Istanbul. Later, she told us that she didn't even felt remorse or anything after everything she done to us...she didn't even apologized, she said regret is unprofessional. Maybe, Raoul just wanted to hear her saying "I'm sorry" or something..." Bond said with a dark tone, looking sadly at Madeleine.
"He brought the shit upon himself, I know. M was warning him, but he pushed himself too far when he hacked the Chinese. He was so brilliant and recklesss." James continued after taking a break. Madeleine quietly listened.
Her chest tightened, part of her heart breaking for James.
"I had to survive, to stop him if I could and make a life that mattered. A life worth living. That's why I kept him in the past."
Madeleine sank into the sofa next to him, her mind reeling.
"He wanted me to see how badly was the whole organization was working. That it leaves behind it's people. He wanted us to see the truth...but he was silenced." James continued and turned to Madeleine. His gaze softened.
"You feel...sorry for him?" Bond asked after a bit of a time.
"Yes, I see the man you loved. The man who was brilliant, passionate and...human." Madeleine said firmly.
"I see how the world destroyed him, how betrayal warped someone who have been so different..." she continued.
"Thanks. It means a lot to me, that you can empathize with him. Most people saw him as a deranged psychopath. They didn't saw Tiago, the man I loved, the man I failed to save."
Madeleine reached out, taking his hand gently.
"You didn't fail him, James. You survived him, while trying to keep the people you love safe. That's not failure. That's courage."
James's hand closed over hers, fingers curling around hers tightly.
"I never wanted to burden you or Mathilde with this."
"Oh, you don't have to carry it alone. I can't undo what happened to him and I can't change the past. But I can stand beside you and share the grief and the memories. And I can help keeping us, our family safe from anything like that ever happening again." Madeleine told the man sitting beside her.
James smiled softly.
"Thank you. That means more than you know."
Madeleine leaned her head lightly on his shoulder, her hand still in his.
"We can't change the past, James. But we can face it together. And we can protect the present...our family. That's what matters."
James wrapped an arm around her, holding her close. They continued sitting in the couch, holding eachother's hands. For a long moment, silence hung between them. Mathilde had gone to bed since she will have to go to school early in the morning.
After a few minutes, James's composure cracked. A shudder ran through him and his hand tightened around Madeleine's. His throat worked and finally, he brokenly whispered:
"I miss him, Madeleine. I miss Tiago so damn much."
The woman besides him felt her own heart tightening. She had expected grief, tension, maybe anger...but not this raw, guttural pain. James's shoulders heaved. A tear slipped down his cheek. Then another. And another. He pressed his forehead into her shoulder, letting the tears fall freely, unashamed and unguarded. Madeleine held him as he trembled.
"Shhh...shhh...James. It's okay. You can feel it, you can grieve. I know...it's hard." Madeleine softly said, trying to comfort him.
"I loved him. I loved him Madeleine...with everything I had. And then...they broke him. They took him from me...and I...I couldn't save him."
Madeleine held him tighter, feeling the weight of his loss settling over her also.
"You did what you could. You survived and you're here now. You're not alone."
James sobbed quietly, tears streaming down his face, his entire body trembling with the grief he had to carry for decades. Madeleine stroked his hair, her own eyes glistening.
He pulled back slightly, eyes red, searching hers.
"I never wanted you to see me like this. I've been so strong for so long..." Bond said with a trembling voice.
"Oh James...you don't have to be strong with me all the time." Madeleine said, voice steady but tender.
"Thanks. I have never been able to cry for him before. Not like this. Not in front of anyone."
Madeleine kissed his temple gently.
For the first time in a long time, James allowed himself to fully mourn Tiago. The love he had lost, the betrayal and the life that might have been.
-fin-