The BLTS Archive - Gene Blues
Seventh in the Crisis Team series
by Blue Champagne (rowan-shults@sbcglobal.net)

---

This goes from "For the Uniform", which comes just after the last ep I
included in "Married to the Mob", namely "The Begotten" (because
that's when Yoshi was born) to "Call to Arms". I don't have "Business
as Usual" on tape, and I've only seen it once, so I had to sort of
coast on memory and the Continuum Site there.

---

GENE BLUES

Or;

K-Tel brings you the Mamas and the Papas, singing 'You're Having My
Baby'

Or;

Sweet Child of Mine--no, Mine!--Mine!--Mine!

---

"For the Uniform" Pt I: Rich Beyond Nightmares of Avarice

"Excuse me."

The Vaneth Province Security, Kenach district-uniformed person looked
up. "Can I help you?"

Julian handed the man a padd. "I've been given clearance to take Molly
O'Brien."

"And you are...?"

"I'm her father," Julian said tightly.

The man consulted his computer screen. "You're Miles Edward--"

"No," Julian told him with barely restrained impatience. "That's my
husband. I'm Julian O'Brien."

"I see. Well, then, let's have your print right here..." as Julian
imprinted the padd he was shown, the man examined the padd Julian had
handed him. "Looks like everything's in order...you have the date for
her court appearance?"

"I have everything I need except my daughter, blast it!"

The man eyed him briefly, then said "Right this way."

They proceeded to the holding cells, stopped outside one, and a girl
with a mess of dark hair hanging in her face sat up on the bunk,
pushing the hair back.

"Oh. Um...hi, Julian." She got up and the force field dropped; she
emerged.

Julian stared at her, incredulous, catching her by the elbows firmly
and demanding "'Hi Julian'? Is that all you've got to say?" He hugged
her suddenly, then pulled back, holding her arms again. "Sweetie, you
---are--- all right, aren't you?"

"I'm fine, Dad. I was hoping it'd be Da who came to get me. He always
melts if I cry."

"Well, no such luck, miss Molly sir." He hugged her again. "How do you
feel?"

"Like a moron, but other than that I'm fine."

"Let's get you home." They started back for the front office. "Now
before we get back, I want you to tell me everything. Were you put up
to this? What were you ---thinking---, for Gods' sake?"

"Oh, hell, Julian, I wasn't thinking! It was supposed to be a joke."

"You lobbed a grenade through an open chem lab window and blew up half
the building! You're only LUCKY there was no one working in there!"

"It wasn't luck! I'd never have hurt anyone. And I didn't expect the
blast to be so powerful, I didn't think I used that much explosive. It
was only supposed to wreck ONE PROJECT. Mine. And I saw it land on my
worktable. I guess I inherited your hand-eye coordi--"

"Mind telling me why you'd want to incinerate your own project?"

"My instructor said the only way it could be more disorganized was if
terrorists blew it up."

"Is this the same instructor that printed your term paper on a sheet
and ran it up the flagpole outside the main hall? With a big red C- on
it?"

"That'd be her."

"The one you faked the termination of tenure notice to?"

"Right again, Dad."

"The one who--"

"You know who she is!"

"You may survive this one yet, at least on the home front. But if you
make me bail you out of jail even once more during this semester, I'm
sending your mother to do it."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me. It's hell having a genius daughter."

"Damn, Julian, I love you too."

"Well I should hope you do. How many fathers would be this
understanding?"

"You've got a point. Speaking of which..."

Julian stopped walking. "Molly...no, please...can't you save this one
for Miles?"

"It's medical. My contraceptive implant seems to have gone dead,
and...uh...oh hell, I got hold of one of your sperm samples from Hana
and we're having ANOTHER one, Dad!"

---

"AUUUUGH!"

"Bloody hell, Julian, what's wrong?"

"A nightmare?"

"Yes..."

Miles sat up and put his arm around Julian. "What happened?"

"Molly was sixteen and I was bailing her out of jail on Bajor for
blowing up a lab."

"Ew!" said Keiko.

"At least," Miles agreed in sympathy. "Anything else?"

"She was pregnant with my baby."

Keiko stared in the dimness. "Julian, my GOD."

"Oh, it's not what you think. She procured one of the samples from
stasis."

"Well, we can explain that part right enough, though I don't know
about the rest. Was she a terrorist or something?"

"No, it was a joke on an instructor she traded pranks with."

"Pretty violent joke," Keiko muttered.

"She hadn't expected the magnitude of the destruction. I think I'm
going to have to talk to Telnori if this keeps up."

"It's keeping us all up, for that matter. No, I didn't mean it, come
here, lie down...after all, you put up with my nightmares, and
sleepwalking all over creation, for months after Argratha. Let's try
to get some more rest before the crack of the alarm."

Julian sighed, created the back-supporting human cradle that Keiko
liked to sleep in with one arm and leg, and let her get situated. He
controlled the impulse to suck on the raw places on his fingertips,
lest Keiko notice--he couldn't keep healing them after practice, or
he'd never get serviceable playing calluses--and closed his eyes.

(The Next Night...)

"AAAAUUUGH!"

"AAACKH!" Keiko echoed, her hand flying up to the ear that was being
screamed in.

"Bollix!" Miles snapped, sitting up and throwing his pillow across the
room. "What now?! Hana again?"

"Um, Miles," Keiko murmured in concern. She'd turned onto her back,
one hand to her belly, to touch Julian's face. "Don't yell. He's
crying."

"Bloody hell...I'm sorry, Julian," Miles groaned in self-reproach,
moving up to Julian and helping him disentangle himself from Keiko and
sit up. "You know it isn't you I'm upset with. Tell us."

"It was Molly," he whispered, wiping his face angrily. "She was
screaming. It wasn't the teenager I've been having dreams about, it
was our Molly, and she was pregnant, she was dying...and it was my
fault..."

Keiko gasped. "Oh no, no...Julian..."

Miles turned around in the darkness and slapped his badge where it lay
on the bedtable. "O'Brien to counselor Telnori."

"Miles, no--"

"Telnori here."

"We've got an emergency in our quarters. Julian's been having
nightmares, they're taking a turn for the god-bloody-gruesome and he's
in tears, shaking like a leaf. I think you'd better come and give him
something."

"Is his heart rate up?"

"Computer, lights." Miles touched the pulse in Julian's neck. "Hell
yes. His pupils've shrunk, too."

"Sounds like he's finally having that classic attack. Took long
enough. I'll be right there."

"Right."

"Chief, you didn't have to do that."

"Shut up, Julian."

(And the Next Night...)

"Keiko, love...how's it coming?"

"Two minutes apart. Let's get me in the chair."

"And...up we go. You're sure you want to do this here?"

"I'm sure. You worry too much, Julian."

"Kei, ---you've--- done this before!"

"You're telling me you've never delivered a baby?"

"You know what I mean."

"Well, you can wake everyone up now, I guess. Why do my kids come in
the middle of disasters or the night?"

"We could delay..."

"NO way. I've had it with this. Next kid Molly has, she carries
herself."

Julian hurried out of the room to wake Miles and Molly in the master
bedroom and Kira in the spare room; all of them scrambled.

As they all headed back to the baby's room, which had been set up as a
delivery room, Kira asked "How is she?"

"I think the best word to describe it would be bored."

Miles said anxiously "Then she's not in pain?"

"No. The central's working perfectly. I may never have seen one work
better." As they all reentered, Julian got into position at the
business end of the chair and Nerys and Miles each came up to kiss
Keiko. Miles went to scrub. Molly, after exchanging smiles with Keiko,
climbed into a chair by the door.

Kira was saying "You really should have let us stay with you..."

"Lighten up, I've been drowning in emotional support for months, and
having experienced the joy and wonder of natural childbirth at the
tender mercies of Worf the midwife, I decided that the only pain I
wanted to feel this time was guilt that I can't get more worked up
about this. She's been real, she's been Hana, for so long, this almost
seems like a footnote, at least without the screaming and sweating and
beating people up. How am I doing down there, Julian?"

"Crowning."

"Good. I was nearly done with my book and I hate starting a new one
when I know I won't have time to finish WHOOPS gonna push now, stand
back. Except you, Julian. You just brace yourself."

"You're doing wonderfully, honey," Miles gushed.

"You sure are, Keiko," Kira confirmed.

"Yeah, I sure am, aren't I?" Chuckle. "Julian, whatever was in that
stuff...okay, time for another push..."

"My Kei, have you been taking lessons from Nerys? Hana was practically
falling out before you even started pushing."

"Well don't let her hit the floor for pete's sake. Lemme just get my
breath, one more good push and I think we're through with the main
event...HEEEAAAVVVE..."

"And that's got it, this is a second baby all right...Miles, would
you...we need to...oh dear..."

"Catch Julian, I'll get the baby!"

Nerys supported Julian to a chair while Miles began the postpartum
cleanup, scans and checks, inoculations, etc.

Keiko appeared cross. "Somebody get that basin over here and catch
this damn afterbirth."

Molly calmly crossed the room and pulled the wheeled basin and its
accoutrements away from the wall and over to where they could do some
good.

"Thanks, honey, but you need to scrub if you're going to help."

"Okay." Molly turned away to do so; she let the light play across her
hands a moment and then was back, overseeing the disposition of the
parts of the miracle of birth that you don't keep. Her small face
wrinkled at the strong smells, but otherwise she was composed.

"What's with Julian? Is he overcome by fatherhood?" Keiko wondered.

"Um...I think he's overcome by this." Miles held Hana up carefully.

In small clear characters across her forehead was a fourteen-digit
number, and printed under that were the words "Property of Edigion
Prime Medical, Genetic Engineering Dept."

---

"AAAUUUUGH!"

"Holy Aine, Julian, what was it this time?"

"Hana was born with a logo on her head from Edigion Prime!"

"Shhh...there now...you know there's no way she can be affected by
your, um, alterations..." Miles quickly put his arms around Julian and
pulled him close, partly in comfort and partly to keep him from seeing
that Keiko had both hands to her face and was desperately trying to
stop laughing.

"No, but...what on earth WAS that, a combination
wish-fulfillment/nightmare?"

Keiko had herself under control, and came over to apply herself to
Julian's back, resting against it and holding his shoulders. "Sounds
like you're worried you didn't quite get everything worked out..."

"No, I know I did, there should be no problems..."

Keiko sighed. "Jadzia is right. Pregnancy--well, incipient
fatherhood--makes men insane."

"She said it makes us hysterical," Miles asided.

Keiko continued "I think you just never expected to have children who
were related to you--you didn't even really think you were going to be
able to make the fertilization of Molly's egg work, at least not right
away, so I guess this is partly my fault for insisting..."

"It's no one's fault, Keiko. You're right, I'm just not prepared for
this, it's not something I ever thought could happen. I ---am--- happy
about it, I'm only at sea..." They all lay back down. "I don't think
anything's ever undone my equilibrium so unequivocally," Julian
muttered.

"Elizabeth Lense ignoring you blew you right out of the water," Miles
muttered back.

"Elizabeth never gave me nightmares. Well, all right, in med school, I
had a few involving her, but that's not the point."

"We understand, Julian," Keiko said softly. "You have a worry here
that Miles and I didn't have, the first time we had a baby that was
genetically ours."

"Then you aren't frightened for Hana?"

"No. I have faith in you, and besides, we have no reason to think that
whatever it was that made you the way you were is genetically
transmissible. It's never occurred before in your family, has it?"

"Not in living memory, no."

"There you are," Miles said, kissed Julian, then rolled over and
pulled his pillow over his head.

"Someone's going to get cranky without their sleep," Keiko whispered
in Julian's ear. "Beware of big growly Irish bears lurking around the
house in the morning..."

(The Following Day...)

"For the Uniform" Pt II: Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends, Once
More...

"Hi, Julian."

"Oh, hello, my Kei." Julian hugged Keiko and kissed her forehead.
"What brings you by?"

"How are you? After being up with Yoshi half the night, I mean."

"It's all right, I wasn't planning to go back to sleep anyway after
that last dream."

"As long as you're feeling all right, then...I'm in labor."

Julian stared. "You can't be."

"Oh, I assure you--I can."

"You're early."

"I know that, Doctor Bashir. Seems your dream was prophetic. Molly was
early too; I think my body gets bored and decides to get things over
with."

"Well, here, come on up, we'll make certain..." Julian started
scanning. "Oh...dear."

"What? What's wrong?!"

"No, not that, nothing's wrong, really, everything's as it was at your
last check in terms of your and Hana's health. But she hasn't turned."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Feel that." Julian laid Keiko's hand on her own
belly. "That firm round object isn't your gall bladder no matter how
much it may feel like it; it's Hana's head."

"Darn it," Keiko sighed. "I know I'm in labor. Why didn't we notice
this before?"

"Because you're early. Weeks."

Keiko stirred uneasily on the biobed. "Should we halt labor?"

"That's up to you. Hana's well enough developed to live on her own;
prenatal exams indicate that if she were in the right position,
there's no reason she shouldn't be born, and your water'll break soon.
She'd be a little small, but nothing worthy of concern in this day and
age."

"What are the options?"

"We can turn Hana ourselves, or we can delay labor, but there's no
guarantee she'll turn on her own soon."

Keiko pondered. "What are the risks to her?"

"As I said, risk to her is nearly as low if we turn and deliver now as
if we delay labor. Risk to you, on the other hand, is a little greater
if we halt the proceedings. ---Your--- body wants to do this ---now---."

"Sounds like I can't make the choice that way."

"No, all things in that respect are fairly equal. Only if we were
forced to a fetal transport would risk increase anything like
significantly for either of you."

"What do you think I should do? As a doctor, not as her father."

"Midwives have been turning babies for many hundreds of years; and of
course, the methods these days are far less uncomfortable. As your
physician, I recommend turning the baby and delivering."

"And as a father?"

"As a father I want drugs, lots of them, pumped directly into my
bloodstream until--"

"Okay, I get you, you're worried. Well, slip into your little red
doctor beanie, Julian, I'm about to become a grandmother. Is the
Defiant back yet? I'd like Nerys and Miles to bring Molly instead of
the sitter..."

"Right. Nurse? Care to help my daughter and me become parents?"

---------

"Keiko!"

"Hello, Nerys."

"How do you feel? The Defiant just got in. Miles is on his way to
Yoshi and Molly; two of his people are having to drag him feetfirst
out of the stabilizer gyro compartment--he kind of repaired himself
in. He sent me ahead."

"I feel strangely fine. Since Julian and Imachram got her turned, Hana
seems to be handling this okay on her own. Julian, how soon can I get
up off my back?"

"In a bit, Kei, and I don't want you pushing yet, either. You're
dilated eight centimeters already and your contractions are hardly
worth mentioning."

"There's a problem?!" Kira stood bolt upright. Keiko winced at the
sudden increased pressure of Nerys's hand on hers.

"No, not really, nothing to be concerned about. In fact..." Julian was
busily running scans. "This is Keiko's second baby, and her labor with
the first one was quite rapid as well, if more difficult."

"Not the least of which difficulty was that big old Klingon staring up
my--say, just where is Worf, anyway?"

"Still on the Defiant, I think," Nerys said.

"Has he heard I'm in labor?"

"Everyone in engineering heard it when I ran down there to tell Miles
and he started yelling something--what's that language again? Irish."

"If he was yelling anything very extensive in Gaelic, he's learnt it
in the past year or so without any of us knowing," Julian supplied.
"He's probably just incoherent."

Nerys differed "He ---can--- swear in Irish, and I think he was. He was
ripping out all the work he'd just done so he could get out of the
compartment. Anyway, Keiko, I'd imagine everyone on the Defiant knows
you're in labor by now."

"Good. Worf won't come anywhere NEAR the infirmary until he's sure
it's over."

---------

"KEIKO!"

"Relax, Miles, the show's barely started," Keiko said, being helped
off the biobed and toward the delivery room by Julian and Kira.
"Julian says I can get in the chair and push now."

"Much pain?"

"A few twinges. Technician Carter has been standing by with the
central analgesic block, but I haven't needed it yet...wait just a
damn OUCH!"

"All right, my Kei?"

"Bring on the drugs, Julian."

---------

"Doctor...come now, let me take her," Nurse Akula said gently, and
Julian sank onto a stool, glassy-eyed, as the Andorian took Hana up
for a meet-and-greet with sister, aunt, mother and additional father.
Or mother, aunt and grandparents, whichever. Julian abruptly got up
and stumbled out, but he didn't get far; he banged into Jadzia right
outside the door of the delivery room.

"Julian, what's--oh, God! What--"

"No, everything's fine--" Julian managed to choke. "You can see her in
a minute--she's so beautiful, Jadzia..."

"Julian," Jadzia crooned, her face melting into a maudlin beam of
appreciation for Julian's tears as she hugged him. "You must be so
happy!"

"I don't know what I am," Julian whispered. "I never felt like this. I
never thought I ever ---could---...be a...well, genetically, I mean..."

"Everyone thinks that for at least part of their life--sometimes even
after you ---are--- a parent," she reassured him; she didn't understand,
obviously, but she meant well all the same, and he clung to her
shoulders for a moment. She continued "But as often as I've been a
parent, it seems like you have to get used to it again every time."

Julian just nodded before saying "Come on; they'll be getting Keiko
comfortable. I'll introduce you to Hana Keiko O'Brien."

---------

"Honey, for all practical purposes, she's your sister, not--"

"Julian says she's my baby."

"He meant in a technical sense, not--"

"Are you saying she's ---not--- my baby?"

"You're related to her in the same degree as you would be to a real
sister--"

"Then are you my sister too?"

"Fine! You can get up at two in the morning and feed her, and you can
change her and bathe her and--"

"Okay." Molly picked Hana up and left the front room. Keiko screamed.
Julian sighed. Miles slugged Julian.

"Hey!"

"'Tell her' you said!  'Be honest' you said! I could bloody well choke
you!"

"Let me talk to her," Julian tried, following Molly to the baby's
room. Both spouses accompanied him.

Molly had put Hana in her monitored crib and was climbing agilely up
on the dresser in order to get the bottle of newborn formula to her.

"Molly," Keiko began without preamble, before Julian could speak, "we
need to get this straight. Whatever the genetic factors may be here, I
am Hana's mother. You are her sister. Clear?"

"Then Aunt Nerys is Yoshi's mother, right?"

"Molly--"

"Since he's genetically from you and Daddy--but she's the one who
carried him, so he's hers. Is that what you're saying?"

"NO!"

"So Hana is Julian's and mine?"

"Sure! Fine! Great! Here." Keiko handed Molly the stack of diapers she
had in one hand and stalked from the room to see to Yoshi.

Julian sighed. "Doll, we need to talk. Miles, take the bottle.
Molly...I'm becoming more than a little tired of people giving me
looks which patently wonder if I've been having it off with my little
girl."

Molly blinked up at him in shiny-eyed, completely feigned innocence.
"Let 'em wonder."

Miles nearly dropped the bottle and turned abruptly away to fish Hana
back out of the bed with one hand and go find Keiko, smothering
laughter. Julian rolled his eyes and settled in for a marathon session
of sweet reason with a seven-year-old. Who was better at it than he
was.

---------

"Julian." Julian didn't even realize anyone had come in until there
were large warm hands on his wrists, pulling his twisting digits
apart. Miles's throaty voice, muted further for the sake of the
sleeping children, continued "Stop worrying your fingers. They'll
bleed again and I hate watching you practice like that, me love."

"They're only sore," Julian said absently.

Miles folded Julian's hands in his and raised the injured fingers to
his mouth, kissing them softly. Julian looked up, away from the crib,
and smiled at him. Hana Keiko and Kirayoshi Subatoi slumbered on.

"I'm not Diancecht," Miles smiled back, "but maybe a little
sympathy'll do some good, in the absence of healing magic. Or of a
regenerator."

"Thank you, Miles my love. They feel better already."

"Can't you numb them or something?"

"I injure them on things when I do that." Julian looked back toward
the somnolent infants with a puzzled sigh.

Miles said wryly "All betwixt and between? Don't know if you're
overjoyed or terrified?"

"Oh yes. She ---is--- all right, I know..."

"I know what's worrying you, and there's no way to tell about it right
away, you know that. But it won't be long. And as we've established,
your problems were probably the result of a mutation or exposure to
something no one can fathom--whether it was your parents, or you, as a
baby. But Keiko isn't worried. And if anything's wrong, she'll worry.
Hell, ---I'm--- not worried, and when ---nothing's--- wrong, I worry."

"True enough."

"Besides, you have enough to stew about--Keiko and I have had a baby
before; I can tell you, you'll be in quandaries enough over these two
without fretting over the nearly impossible, though I understand the
impulse. Now come on; you can't stand in here all night. You'll need
---some--- sleep and these'll let us get little enough as it is."

"Mm." Julian reluctantly turned away from the crib and let Miles put
an arm around him and lead him from the babies' room.

"Been thinking of names?"

"Names? Oh, you mean for...no, not really. When you told me names are
customary I didn't give it much thought, we had too much to do before
it became an issue. What do you think of Tahir?"

"Pretty. Where's it from?"

"It's Sudanese. It was my grandfather's name. Really, though,
grandfather wasn't very musical that I recall, not that I remember
much about him. Do ---you--- have any ideas?"

"Hm...half my family's musical, but I had one favorite family member
who loved to sing more than just about anything else but hunting."

"...hunting?"

"Luchtigern. My cat. Huge grey cat, tough as nails. Voice like a
war-harp on that cat."

Julian grinned. "Luchtigern..."

("In Purgatory's Shadow"-"By Inferno's Light")

"Benjamin, I think you should let the Chief break this to Keiko."

"It's my responsibility, Old Man."

"She doesn't ---need--- Julian's commanding officer talking to her right
now, she needs her husband! She's going to be worse than horrified,
she lived with a changeling for a month--their ---children--- lived with
him!"

"Have you spoken with Miles?"

Dax was quiet a moment, then whispered "Yes."

"Do you think that it would be any kindness to him to force him to
tell his wife something like this?"

She sighed. "Maybe not. All right then, let me. If not her husband,
then at least a friend, not an official notification. They're going to
blame themselves for not recognizing the fact that this...person was
not their husband!"

"That's probably true. But the changelings are famous for their
ability to catalog detail with a degree unparalleled by any species
thus far known in any quadrant. All that was necessary was for the
changeling to arrive in their quarters through any number of possible
routes, emulate various objects around the house--wall surfaces leap
to mind; no one would have noticed anything odd, even if the
shapeshifter moved around the house to observe the doctor in various
different situations. A few days of such observation, and no one--not
his own mother--would have been able to detect the impersonation. And
that doesn't even include what the changeling would have learned about
him while researching medicine as it's practiced on this station."

"They're not going to fasten right on to that rationale, Benjamin. I
mean, Julian and I are close too, and ---I--- feel guilty for not having
known any better. How much worse are ---they--- going to feel?"

"That much is obvious," Sisko sighed, slumping in his chair and
steepling his fingers against his chin. "I understand if you want to
be here, Old Man, and the Chief's welcome as well, of course. But I'll
be the one to deliver the news."

"Is Julian still in the infirmary?"

"Yes. He's undergoing comprehensive nutritional supplementation and
autotoxin removal, along with Worf, Martok and Garak."

"He'd want to be here."

"But he shouldn't be. Keiko ought to be free to express
her...discomfiture, without being afraid she'll upset him--since
Doctor Bashir...can't feel any better about this than they do, and
he's known about it for thirty-seven days, helpless in a Dominion
prison."

"I suppose it ---would--- be best if they got the worst of it out of their
systems before they saw him. Okay, you're right. You want to call them
in or shall I?"

"I think I'll meet her and the Chief at the transport, help them take
the children to the care center, and tell her when--no, I'll ask them
to come to my office. They'll need privacy, and telling them something
like this in their own living room seems...uncalled for. When are they
due?"

"Any time. In fact..." Dax looked at the chronometer. "They should be
coming in now."

---------

"Keiko!" Miles and Jadzia both jumped for her, but Miles, in his
somewhat distracted mood, was a little too slow and Jadzia got there
first. She half-carried Keiko to the couch and sat with her, holding
her up in both arms. "Chief, would you get us some tea?"

"Mouthwash," Keiko groaned, covering her face and turning slightly
green. "I kissed him! Oh, God, I--I--"

"You and me both," Miles agreed, visibly wincing.

"And you couldn't even tell from THAT?" Jadzia said, her jaw dropping.

"Wasn't more than once or twice, busy as we've all been," Miles
muttered almost inaudibly, "but still..."

"God," Keiko said again, clinging to Dax. "Then how long HAD it been
watching us?"

"The changeling, or its compatriots, certainly would have researched
anything it needed to know to perform all the functions aboard that
Doctor Bashir does, including that of...---ahem---...husband," Sisko
muttered almost inaudibly.

"Oh, you poor things," Jadzia whispered. "I hadn't even thought of
that."

"I've got plans for a week-long bath in industrial grade solvent,"
Miles vowed, sinking down onto the couch and handing Jadzia the mug
for Keiko.

"I'll join you," Keiko said weakly. "How much does Julian know?"

"No telling what he's surmised, but even though he's asked for me,
they haven't let me see him yet," Miles told her. "I imagine it's him
they're more worried for than me, as far as ---that--- goes."

"Miles...the children..."

"I know. At any time, it could have--"

"That isn't why it was here, Chief," Sisko cut in stentorily. "The
changelings didn't kill even Julian, though they easily could have;
and harming your children in any way wouldn't have got the changeling
what it wanted. In fact, such action would have drawn attention to it
and compromised its primary mission. The children were never in any
danger."

"Well, no more than the rest of us were," Jadzia muttered. "If Kira
hadn't made me take the Defiant to warp inside the system, we'd ---all---
be dead."

"Tell us about it," Miles muttered, "and ---we--- certainly didn't spot
the danger, we hadn't the native wit to realize it wasn't our husband
we lived with for over a month. I ---did--- think he seemed far too busy
with far too little reason, considering Yoshi and Hana and
Chairiste--and Molly..." Miles whispered.

"What?" Sisko said in concern. "Has something happened to Molly?"

"In a way," Keiko sighed. "Why didn't we ---see---, Miles?"

"What is it?" Jadzia demanded.

"I want to see Julian," Keiko said. "Captain, make them let us in.
How...how many people know about the changeling?"

"That there was one on the station, and Kira and the Old Man destroyed
it before it could wipe out several fleets of ships, not to mention
all Bajor? Half the quadrant. Specifically, though, who the changeling
was impersonating...our crew returned from the prison, General Martok,
Dax, the Chief, major Kira, you...my report to Admiral Ross...I don't
believe it's become general knowledge."

"We'd rather it didn't," Miles said firmly. "This is bad enough
without that."

"It won't," Sisko said solemnly. "Count on it."

"You really can, you know," Jadzia murmured, hugging Keiko close.

---------

Molly looked up when the front door opened and shut.

Da. "No, Julian, just come on in and lie down. God, you've lost
kilograms and you didn't have them to spare. We'll bring everyone
round to you. We've...got someone to introduce."

IT. "Whatever does that mean?"

Mom. "We're going to have a guest for a while. Come on, Miles..."

"They're coming," Molly whispered in Hana's ear. She reached a hand
through the crib railing to pat Yoshi and, holding Hana, faded toward
the railed bed where the little blonde girl sat. "I'll be here. It
won't get us."

"Molly?" Miles peeked in. "Honey. It's all right. We...understand
what's been bothering you about Julian."

"It...Miles, how do we tell her?"

Molly watched them suspiciously. They ---didn't--- understand about
Julian. He wasn't Julian, and if he was, something was ---wrong--- with
him. He looked and talked and acted the same, he even smelled like a
cinnamon roll like Dad, but something she couldn't quite put her
finger on was wrong. It might not seem like much, but it was wrong,
and it was ALL wrong.

And there was no way grownups would believe her, even if she was dumb
enough to try to tell them the truth. She remembered that business
with Mommy and the pagh wraith. No grownup but Da would have believed
her then, either--and he only believed it because the wraith had told
him itself.

All she'd been able to do this time was keep trying to act normal so
IT wouldn't catch her out, and try to keep her daughter and the other
babies away from it. It hadn't seemed to mind that much. It always
seemed to be off doing other things. It would ask her to watch the
little kids and go off to do something, and ask her not to tell Mom
and Da. That was when she knew her suspicions were right--Julian would
never have done that. Left them alone, ---or--- asked her to lie to Mom
and Da. But she ---did--- know whose word would be taken over whose if she
tried to make a stink about it. Being seven was hell.

"Honey," Daddy started again, getting down on one knee next to her.
Mom came to take Hana, but Molly faded back another step, turning Hana
away from the outstretched hands with a defiant look.

"I know where you wanna take her," Molly whispered.

Keiko sighed. "All right, keep her for now. You won't have to be
afraid much longer."

"We owe you an apology, sweetie," Daddy said very quietly. "We didn't
know what you knew...we were frustrated, we didn't understand the way
you were acting. And you're so young, we didn't think it was good for
you, insisting on caring for the little ones so much. We know why now.
The man who was living with us this past month...wasn't Julian."

Molly glared. "Well I know ---that---."

"Right. Um...it's just that now, we know it too. But he's gone now,
and Julian's home."

"Who was IT?"

"It was a Founder, sweetie. It fooled everyone on the station. You're
the only one who had any clue. Anyway, Dad's had kind of a rough time,
and he's not looking quite himself, but it's him, you can count on it.
The Founder impersonating him is gone now. I got a message from the
real Julian, and Jadzia and Aunt Nerys got rid of the fake one."

"How are you sure it's him?"

"He's had all kinds of tests in the infirmary, including DNA, over and
above the usual." Keiko offered "The only reason the changeling fooled
everyone so long was that Dad is one of the people who run the tests,
so the changeling was able to falsify results and records. Now
there'll be better security against that."

"Uncle Julian's been replaced by changelings before," Miles added,
"and that's why. He's right at the door to the gamma quadrant, and
he's the chief medical officer."

"But you're telling me they can't take him again?" Molly said
challengingly.

"They may try, but they'd fail. Julian's going to be checked regularly
by a medical officer not under his command. Which was actually his
idea. He's scared of what might have happened to you and the other
children while he was gone, Molly. He knows that from your point of
view, you've no reason to trust him. Come see him, sweetie. If you
knew it wasn't him before, you'll know it ---is--- now. It'd make him feel
better if you'd let him see Hana and the other children..."

"Miles, never mind."

They looked around. Julian was standing in the door, but not inside
the room. His hands were held unthreateningly at his sides. "You're
right," he said, voice deep and rough and quiet. "She hasn't any
reason to trust me after what's happened, and I might add she's got
precious little reason to trust anyone. Even you two. It's all right,
Molly. And I'm sorry." Julian vanished again in the direction of the
master bedroom.

Miles and Keiko looked at each other, in obvious chagrin. Molly
watched them a moment as no one spoke.

She made up her mind. "Come on, Hana," she whispered to the baby.
"We'll go see if it's him." She readjusted her grip on the
blanket-wrapped bundle--she almost smirked when she realized, from the
look on his face, that Da only just now saw that Hana was in Molly's
favorite old baby blanket, the one she'd slept with for years--and
walked out past them toward the master bedroom.

She went in. Julian, if that was his real name, was sitting on the
edge of the bed sort of slumped over, looking at the floor. She
marched up and stopped. He lifted his head. His eyes were red and he
looked thin. He looked older.

She held Hana out. "She's growing fast."

Julian stared at the bundle a moment, then carefully and slowly took
it from her, pulling the blanket back to look at the baby. Hana
cooperated by waking up and looking back.

"She'll cry in a minute," Molly said. "She likes to eat when she wakes
up. That's probably why she's getting so big."

Julian was nodding slowly, his expression rapt, giving the baby a
little finger to suck on. "She is big, for six weeks, as early as she
was...Molly...it..." Julian looked back at her. "Did he ever hurt you?
You can tell me. We'll believe you."

"You mean the IT? No. I watched him. If he had the little kids by
himself I MADE them let me be there. He tried to take Hana off once to
show to some people in the infirmary; I screamed until they all had to
let me go, too. When Mom said I had to go with her to Bajor while Da
was gone--I threw a fit, but it didn't help, I just got sent to my
room--I called aunt Nerys and said you hadn't been feeling good but
you wouldn't admit it, and asked her to come and stay whenever you got
in and sent the sitter home. I was really relieved when she just
laughed and said she bet she shouldn't say anything to the proud new
father about helping out, and I said no, just say she wanted to visit.
That was the only time I was REALLY worried about the little kids. I
got tired having to get up when he did for feedings, but that wasn't
too bad, the babies' crying sometimes wakes me up anyway. They never
caught me. I hid, but I watched."

Mom and Da had come in, but they were quiet. Molly knew they felt bad,
and she knew they hadn't meant to be wrong, but they had been, and
DAMN it she deserved to be told she did a good job, after all the crap
she'd had to take from ---them---.

She could hardly hear him when he spoke. Julian said "You're very,
very brave, Molly, and I'm glad you were here. I'm glad the little
ones could count on you...oh, Molly I'm so bloody damned ---sorry---!" He
bit his lip, and his throat tensed up, just the way Molly's did when
she was trying not to cry, and she took Hana, turned around and handed
the baby to Mom, and climbed into his lap. He held on to her so tight
it squished a little, but she didn't complain. She'd complain later.
She wanted to cry too, she'd been so scared and now she was so glad he
was back, even though he looked sick...but not now. Now she was going
to be brave, like Julian needed.

"It's him," she said to Mom and Da, and patted Julian's back.

---------

Julian was spoon-feeding the little blonde toddler later, after the
other children were asleep. This one wouldn't go down; Molly had
informed them that the girl wanted applesauce, but someone else could
give it to her because Molly was tired; then she'd promptly fallen
asleep on the sofa.

Miles had concurred with the applesauce hypothesis, it being part of
his list of instructions, and gone to procure some; Julian insisted on
administering it.

"Chairiste, you're a mess," he said softly, blotting her with her bib.
"I thought you wanted to ---eat--- this."

"Yah," Chairiste agreed, grabbing for the hand Julian held the spoon
in to haul it back to her mouth.

Julian looked up at Miles. "Miles my love, I'm not complaining, but
why in heaven's name did your father ask you? Living here, of all
places? You do have two brothers."

"You mean my brother Mac, the--sorry, I mean Michael Junior, the
Special Services munitions expert, presently stationed near the
Cardassian border--or Sean Oisin, touring violist with the European
Symphony Orchestra?"

"Um...you have a point. But couldn't she be ---somewhere--- safer? A care
center on Earth?"

Keiko shook her head, but not at Julian. "You know how Miles's family
is about that kind of thing. I'm afraid that for one reason and
another, we're the best choice to be had, as far as they're concerned.
Miles did ask us, before he agreed. Well, he at least thought he asked
you. So we have a miniature of Miles in the house until his stepmother
is out of stasis and on her feet again."

"And I can tell you," Miles said, "Da could never have kept up with
this creature. I've been worried as hell about Molly, but on a level,
shaming as it is to admit it, I've been glad of her help."

"We all have, at one time or another," Keiko said.

"Were you really this charming as a toddler, Miles?" Julian wondered
as Chairiste grinned a fruit-puree grin at him. He grinned back.

"Um, no, not really, Sean was the charmer. Julian, you should lie
yourself down and rest. Go with him, darlin', I'll take charming
Chairiste here. C'mon, little colleen..."

"Da! Da!"

"No, I keep telling you I'm not Da, sweetie, though I can see why
y'might think so. I'm your ---brother---. Say 'Miles'?"

"Da Mile!"

"Well, I ---was--- hoping a bit for "uncle" if you can't manage Miles,
but...close enough. Come on..." the transfer was accomplished and
Keiko got up to go with Julian into the bedroom.

As they settled to the bed, Keiko muttered "I'm thinking of burning
this mattress."

"We'll have Miles irradiate it. Anyway, it would be a pity to let
anything happen to Deanna's lovely linens just because some
Founder...heavens, I can't even say it."

"I can't even think it."

"Has Telnori spoken with you?"

"Not yet." She smiled faintly. "Good old Telnori. He's been around
almost since before the beginning, hasn't he?"

"He has been for me. And I think he saved Miles's sanity after
Argratha, though I doubt Miles will ever be over that. I never would
be. In any case, Telnori came to see me in the infirmary; he mentioned
that he'd already cleared time on his schedule for the three of us,
together and separately. Molly, too."

"Saves us the trouble of calling him. Did he tell you when our group
session is?"

"Tomorrow. Eighteen hundred."

"Actually I think Molly may have the ---least--- trouble getting over
this. She did at least know that something wasn't right...but she also
knew she couldn't trust us, or anyone else, to help. That has to have
been horrible."

"I was disbelieved by my parents when I was telling the truth, on a
fairly regular basis. Not quite the same circumstances, but in
general, it is indeed enough to make one tear sheet metal."

"I only ---hope--- she's more angry than hurt."

"I understand that nightmare now. The one in which Molly was seven and
pregnant, and it was my fault..."

"How could you have known, Julian? Either that this would happen, or
that she'd react this way to it?"

"I don't know. Perhaps it had to do with her insistence that Hana was
her own. I didn't question telling her, and everyone else, the truth
at the time, but...in any case, the coincidence as far as the dream
seems too much to ignore." Julian crawled in bed and plopped against
the pillows. "Oh...despite ---what--- was here in my absence, it's good to
be back."

Keiko lay down with him. "I'm still trying to adjust to the idea that
you weren't here. Brrrr." She shuddered.

"True, we have very different sorts of circumstances to get used to.
By the way...I...hope you took quite a number of holorecordings of
Hana in the last five weeks."

Keiko squeezed him in sympathy and genuine grief. "Oh, Julian...I'm so
sorry you've missed so much. You only had--three days with her?"

"Three very short days...that conference was only supposed to take
two. Damn well mandatory..."

"We know."

"Don't be surprised if you see me bolting into the bathroom and
locking the door. I don't like to be so sour in front of the children;
it's upsetting to them."

"We took a couple of dozen recordings, stills and otherwise. Molly has
the recorder in her room."

"Were they for her, or do you suppose she figured somehow that I'd
make it home?"

"I wouldn't put it past her..."

"Chairiste's down," Miles said, coming in and starting to get out of
his uniform. "And I asked Molly where ---she--- wanted to sleep, and she
said the living room with the lights on."

"Not in here?" Julian puzzled.

"No. I tried to convince her to come in--then asked if she wanted me
to stay out there with her, thought she might be worried over sleeping
in a room with you--but she got the same look on her face she's been
getting all the last five weeks. Plain as day, it said this time, 'I'm
out here, you're in there, no questions, goodnight, Da.'"

Keiko hid her face on Julian. "She's standing guard."

"Bloody well is," Miles sighed, climbing in on Julian's other side and
arranging them all in a heap with Julian in the middle. "But I think
the best thing we can do for her is to let her, as suspicious of the
world in general as she is right now. Force the issue, and the first
thing she'll think is we've got something to hide. If she's not
reassured in a few days, we'll worry then. Computer, lights."

There was a long silence.

Keiko whispered "Were you afraid?"

Julian nuzzled her hair. "Not for my life. They treated Worf in ways
we'd think of as abominable, but he doesn't, though he was getting
pretty sick of it before it was over, as were we all. Jem'Hadar
prisons are considerably more civilized than, say, Cardassian or
Klingon. We were free to move around the compound, since there was
nothing outside but vacuum. We weren't physically harmed unless we
disobeyed. We weren't starved, though I took exception to the fact
that many of the meals were lacking in nutritional content, and I got
thrown into solitary for five days--"

Keiko winced. Julian stroked her back. "Far preferable to being beaten
within an inch of my life, as would have happened in many alpha
quadrant prisons. It was only thirty-seven days, my Kei. It wasn't
pleasant, but Miles went through ---far--- worse, for infinitely longer.
The worst part, I suppose, after knowing that there was a shapeshifter
burping the children, was having to kill some of the Jem'Hadar--put a
knife in one, and you can imagine how that would affect a doctor. Some
of my fellows were killed. And it was...a very difficult time for my
enigmatic friend Garak, for several reasons."

There was quiet for a long time. Keiko had been stroking one hand
lightly down Julian's chest, a sort of idle comforting touch which she
was prone to; Julian thought Miles might have fallen asleep--which he
could do practically anywhere or in any position, another legacy of
the soldier he'd once been. But then Keiko slid up partly over Julian
and kissed him with a soft insistence. He returned it, but whispered
"Kei...I'm not sure I'm--"

"Let me," Keiko whispered. "I want that...that damned--"

"--lying, murderous piece of slime," Miles added for her softly.

"--out of this bed. And out of--of--"

"--of us, too," Miles finished for her again. He kissed along Julian's
neck and jaw, murmuring "We know you're all in. It's all right, just
let us...but we won't push, if you really don't--"

"No, it's not that--I suppose I'm feeling so guilty over Molly, taking
such comfort from you feels wrong."

"I know what you mean," Keiko said, "but Molly's had all the comfort
she's capable of taking right now, and she'll have more as soon as she
can accept it--and you didn't kidnap yourself, Julian. You can't blame
yourself, over the children or Miles and me, either. If anything,
we're the ones who should have ---known---..."

Julian whispered "Oh, we're ---not--- going to get into another contest of
humility, are we? It seems to happen whenever we hit some sort of
unexpected snag."

Miles countered "S'better than screaming blame at each other." Still
working on Julian's neck and its environs, which fact Julian was, by
this time, appreciating deeply, Miles was helping Keiko get all their
clothes off, any that they happened to be wearing.

"Wait...if it's going to be the way I think it is? I'll be back in a
moment." They let Julian slide away from them and move, a slim shadow
in the darkness, toward the bath.

They reached up when he came back, and he sank into their embrace, and
they kissed him and laid him down between them.

For a while, Julian wondered if they'd decided to stroke him into
sleep, also an appealing prospect at the moment. Curled close with
him, they ran their hands gently over all his skin, caressing each
hollow and curve of his body. Keiko and Julian had petted Miles into a
safer-feeling unconsciousness just this way, almost every night, for
months after Argratha, and sometimes still did; they'd started doing
it for Julian, too, after the nightmare that precipitated his anxiety
attack. But soon their touches became more insistent, still all over
him, but more specific in intent, and he felt himself reacting.
Arousal stirred within him, growing to a low throb, his breath and
pulse deepening; he could feel an invisible flush starting across him.

Keiko began to use her mouth as well as her hands, Miles following her
lead; Julian realized they had likely been reassuring themselves as
much as they had him--of his presence, his existence there with them.
He longed to touch them, convince them--'It's really me, I'm really
the man who loves you, don't be afraid--' but whenever he moved to do
so, they gently caught his hands, turning them up to kiss his palm,
the delicate flesh inside his wrist, run soft lips over each
fingertip. They whispered to him, telling him to be still, that
everything was all right, that they loved him and how much, even a
phrase he'd never found it easy to believe--that he was beautiful--but
for that moment, from them, he believed it. They brought responses
from him, body and soul, that he hadn't suspected he'd had the
strength for right then. With a shudder, he abandoned worries over his
lack of reciprocation, and just let them make love to him.

He lay in Miles's arms, his back against the older man's chest. He let
his head fall back against Miles's shoulder so that Miles could rub
his lips softly across Julian's, pause and kiss him deeply, let his
breath flow warm over Julian's sensitive ear. Julian felt his skin
caressed with velvet-soft lightness, hands, mouth and tongue raising
gooseflesh in their wake. A brush of Miles's fingertips across
Julian's nipples made him shiver again.

Keiko was sliding down his body, exploring each tiny alteration that
the loss of flesh over the last five and more weeks had wrought on
him, kissing and pressing her cheek to the slight indentations between
his ribs, stroking her hands down his sunken flanks, over his
prominent hipbones. Julian hadn't thought the changes that marked, but
the way Miles and Keiko had reacted when they saw him told him he
might look more different than he'd thought...or perhaps Miles and Kei
had simply been hurt by the sight of it more. As if she could hear his
thoughts, Keiko opened her mouth and ran her teeth lightly down the
length of his hipbone, something that always made him quiver--as
though saying she wasn't ---that--- upset by the change..."It's all
right," she whispered again, and lowered her mouth to his swollen
penis.

Julian gasped softly and tensed, his back arching against Miles's
chest, as Miles caught him closer, arms pressing firm across his chest
and belly, sliding his own darkly-flushed member against Julian's
buttocks. Julian moaned, just barely pushing back against him. Miles
sighed shudderingly, lightly biting Julian's neck and allowing his own
body to respond to the rocking of Julian's pelvis, moving against him
with firm intensity; Keiko slid her arm up over Julian's hip and
across Miles's, grasping him firmly, helping to hold them all steady.

Julian's hands twined loosely in Keiko's glossy hair as she caressed
him with her tongue, by turns sucking, kissing and licking until
Julian gasped and moaned again, a sound of entreaty. Miles's erection
was sliding loosely against Julian as their hips moved, in clear, warm
fluid. Julian's back arched again at the feel of it. "Miles..?" he
whispered as Keiko began to move back up Julian's body. She slid her
hand across his testes and he sucked in a sudden breath, letting it
out on a long sigh as she held them, massaging lightly.

Julian whispered "God," as he felt Miles touch him, first one, then
two slicked fingers gently inserting themselves inside him, reaching
deeper...stretching him slowly, caressing muscles into relaxation.
Helplessly, Julian's body continued to move against Keiko's hand and
Miles's as they kept on, kissing him across belly and chest, shoulders
and back and neck.

He was lost in sensation...he felt on the verge of begging, he didn't
know what for, he was still too weak, he couldn't stand this...

Keiko's hand released him; she took his waist and slid her leg across
both men, folding her lower leg up between herself and Julian. She
pulled his arm over her and he encircled her with it across her lower
back, pulling her in close, and she began to press herself down on
him, taking him inside her; one gentle push, two--and he slid in all
the way, the slick warmth of her engulfing him, drawing a groan from
them both. Miles murmured in satisfaction, flushed and shivering, at
seeing their faces, feeling the reaction of their bodies against his
own.

Tears barely glittered in the lashes of Julian's closed eyes.

Miles began sliding into Julian with agonizing slowness. Julian's body
spasmed. Miles, his lower arm around Julian, reached over and slid the
other arm around him and Keiko, his hand clasping Julian's forearm
where the younger man held her. The softness and shocking heat inside
Julian made Miles's joints go loose; he held on to Keiko and Julian
and felt their motion, matched his own to it, until his flanks pressed
hard against Julian's hips and his mind seemed to dissolve.

Julian had to hold his breath a moment as his free hand jerked and
twisted in the sheet at the sudden, incredible intensity of feeling
Miles stretch and fill him slowly, as Keiko controlled her own motion
until she felt him suddenly push back against Miles, sliding him home.

The sensation of holding Miles inside him was powerfully potent,
heady; he could feel Kei and Miles exchange a wordless caress, Miles's
hand trailing across her throat and breasts, the silken inside of her
leg running up his side from thigh to waist and back down. And they
began moving again, and so did Julian...his heart thudded painfully at
the overwhelming stimulation that washed him in double waves...oh,
firm, steady...faster...panting, whispering, moaning aloud, cries
becoming gradually more urgent, desperate--so close--

With a dizzying effort, he whispered "Wait, please--oh, God--"

They stopped instantly, even as Keiko let out an involuntary noise of
frustration, quickly cut off, and Miles collapsed shaking with the
effort not to keep on; but he controlled it, still hard inside Julian,
and whispered "What is it? Are you all right?"

"Oh..." Julian panted for breath. "Don't let it be yet, just...hold me
like this...I don't want it to be yet..."

"Mmmm..."

Miles made a soft sound of appreciative consent for the idea, too, as
Keiko used her hold on Miles to pull her sweat-dampened body up
against Julian's; Julian moved his arm from her back to carefully
stroke the tendrils of black hair from her face, turned his head to
receive Miles's kiss, and the other man took the chance to refirm his
hold on them both.

They were all still burning, trying to still the incessant quivers and
involuntary contractions that ran through them, but they savored the
sensation, and the feeling of lying wrapped close, so thoroughly
joined. Julian inhaled the heavy scent that hung in the room, never
quite the same with any combination of only two of them; he didn't
think he'd ever been so intoxicated by it. They caressed each other
absently, their panting abating only slightly; Keiko was slit-eyed,
her expression rapturous.

To feel them, in whatever way, feel this...he would have done anything
he had to, to feel this again...

Miles shuddered and pushed against him. He and Keiko both felt it, and
they both responded without thinking, moving, Keiko pumping harder,
clinging to them both; Julian letting them lead him, control his
motion as pleasure built in a rapid crescendo within him. The blood
roared in his ears so that he couldn't hear his own cries; Miles
anchored them, eyes shut tight, Julian's slamming heartbeat
counterpointing his own as he thrust over and over...rhythm
increasing...

"Oh--NOW--" Keiko cried, "--NOW, let go--"

Miles's sharp shout was inarticulate as he came, his body arcing in a
spasm that went on, and on, until his muscles shook in protest, as
Julian cried out repeatedly and writhed, sobbing for breath, only
their iron deathgrips on each other preventing him from thrashing them
all apart, and Keiko kept gasping "Now, yes...oh, now..."

---------

"You need to do that more often, Kei," Julian commented to her as they
sprawled in various attitudes of exhaustion. "You don't usually, but
when you do..."

"Does seem to work, doesn't it," Miles agreed.

"I don't really plan it," Keiko murmured. "It just sort of happens
when things are coming together the way that makes you think you know
the meaning of universal existence. Which with the soundproofing
around here I guess is a good thing."

"Hope we didn't scare Molly," Miles said worriedly. "I did beef up the
soundproofing in here, but..."

"She's heard us do this before," Keiko said.

"It's true we don't usually scream quite so much, though," Julian
admitted.

"Nothing scares Molly," Keiko asserted. "Even through the last six
weeks, I haven't seen her show a single qualm for herself. For the
babies, yes, and Julian..."

"Now that you mention it..." Miles agreed.

"I've always known she had the heart of a lion," Julian sighed. "Maybe
we could arrange for her to spend some time charging into the teeth of
battle in the holosuite with Worf and Jadzia."

"Gor, Julian!"

"I'm only joking," Julian giggled softly.

(The following afternoon...)

"DEFEND YOURSELF!" Molly screamed, and swung.

Jadzia parried almost too gently, startled at the power the graceless
double-overhand blow carried, let Molly land a few more glancing
strikes, then plucked the bat'leth from her hands with the point of
her own weapon through the blade of Molly's. Molly reached for it and
Jadzia dropped it back into her hands. The weight overbalanced the
girl and she landed on her rear with a wuff.

"What'd I do wrong THAT time?" she demanded.

Jadzia leaned down to take the huge--if blunt--weapon off of Molly.
"What I've said all along you're doing wrong--you need to start with a
light practice blade, against a holopartner, preferably one not much
taller than you, at the novice level. This bat'leth nearly weighs as
much as you do."

Molly scowled, getting to her feet. "Y'mean I'm wasting your time."

Jadzia let both blades fall forward to rest with their tips in the
holosand. "Relax, Molly. I told you that's how I started."

"No you didn't. You were Curzon. You started with a full-weight
blade."

"But I was a full-weight person, and I still had to learn how to fight
as Jadzia, not Curzon. Molly, it's impressive that you can even lift
this thing, much less do overhead work with it!"

"Klingon kids fight with real ones! Against grown-ups!"

"Klingon kids also stagger home bruised and bleeding, and if that
happened to you your parents would take turns, two of them holding me
down while the other one pounded me with my own war axe."

Molly sighed.

"Come on, you've had enough for one day, I know how tired your arms
must be. Mine were a lot longer than yours, and they were tired after
this much work, at first."

"Okay, okay..." Molly let Jadzia conduct her from the room and out to
the Promenade.

"Has Keiko told your fathers you're practicing with me yet?" Jadzia
wondered.

"She told the IT about a week ago. It didn't say anything to Da. Dad
only just got back; I don't think he'll mind. Da's going to have a
fit, though."

"You're probably right," Jadzia surmised, with a lopsided smile.
"Let's go by my quarters and leave the bat'leths, and spruce you up a
little, before we head for the care center."

"Okay."

---------

"Doctor. Julian? Wake up." A very cool palm was laid against Julian's
bare shoulder.

"Mmm...what...?" Julian twisted, legs tangled in the sheet, and
realized the figure by the bed was too big to be Keiko and too small
to be Miles...um..."---Garak---?" he murmured as his eyes focused.
"What--is something wrong?"

"That's what I was asked to determine, Doctor. The Chief has been
trying to raise you, periodically, for four hours."

"What? I ---slept--- through the ---comm---?"

"Apparently so."

Julian pushed himself up groggily on one elbow. There was a time
Garak's unannounced presence in his bedroom while he slept had sent
him right through the ceiling. "Computer, put me through to Chief
O'Brien."

"O'Brien here."

"Hello, Miles--sorry, I was sleeping like a stone. What did you need?"

"To know if we'd killed you last night or something. Do you know what
time it is?"

"...no..."

"Past fifteen hundred. The only reason I'm not up there with a med
unit is I'm still waiting for this damn access shaft to complete a
full decontam cycle before I can get back through it; the radiation
plays hell with transporter signals. Are you all right?"

"I'm wonderful, except for being shocked. I haven't slept through a
comm summons since I got my physiology degree."

"I know, that's why I was worried. Maybe Guirani released you lot
rather soon."

"Actually I might have her run a check. I can't afford this sort of
thing happening. But I feel fine, at the moment."

"Well, just take it easy. Keiko's going to be late again, so I'll need
you to meet me at the care center at eighteen hundred. Up to it?"

"Of course. I'll see you then."

"Right." The comm went silent.

"Well," Julian yawned, curling his legs up to one side as he sat up,
stretching his shoulders, "I wonder why Miles called ---you--- and not one
of my staff. I apologize for him, he's such a worrier..."

"---Are--- you all right, Doctor?"

"Yes," Julian nodded, blinking himself the rest of the way awake and
resting his weight on one palm. "Why?"

"You appear rather...gaunt."

"Gaunt."

"Yes."

"Garak, I was born that way."

"To this degree? I doubt it."

"Have you ---ever--- seen me looking exactly well-fleshed?"

"That's quite a delicate question..."

"Let me put it another way. Have you ever seen this much of me at once
before?" Speaking of which. Julian belatedly checked to be sure the
twisted tangle of sheet was covering the more delicate portions of his
lap.

"No, Doctor, I'm quite sure I'd remember this if I'd seen it before."

"Well, there you are. This is just what I look like in a sheet."

"Forgive what might seem to be my immoderate concern, but you ---did---
undergo a high level of...stress, in part due to your family
considerations, during our recent--"

"Oh, hell, and you didn't? I should be asking if ---you're--- all right.
Here, sit down. How ---are--- you feeling since Guirani released us last
evening?"

Garak was motionless.

Julian essayed a drowsy half-smile, and took Garak's wrist in a loose
grip. "Come on; I won't bite you."

"That isn't what causes me to hesitate. Don't you think your spouses
would feel that your bed has seen enough of alien presences for the
time?"

"I won't tell them if you don't." Julian tugged gently, and smiled
sleepily again, with a small beckoning toss of his head that made his
hair fall across his eyes.

Garak sat down.

Julian shifted his hand to Garak's shoulder. "Look, no matter how much
good I might think it would do you, I'm not about to try to suggest
you pour your heart out to me about Tain..."

"That's fortunate. I ---would--- so hate to have to disappoint you."

"...but, as fate would have it, I ---am--- the only one to whom...to whom
you could embroider history, speak metaphorically, lie like a rug,
whatever, on the matter."

"And I'm glad you remain so. Thank you for the careful wording in your
report."

"Think nothing of it. Thank ---you---, for...taking me so far into your
confidence, especially in such a terribly personal matter."

"If I may say, Doctor, in that particular circumstance, there could
have been no one else to trust."

"Well of course, Worf and Martok aren't exactly--"

"I meant in the larger sense, with only one--possible--exception."

"I shouldn't ask who it is, should I."

"As I said, I'd hate to disappoint you. Suffice it to say I'm not
completely certain she's still alive."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't let it worry you, Doctor. She's one of many people of my past
acquaintance who share that characteristic."

"I'm sure. But in any case, I want you to know that if you ever
---should--- feel like talking...well, you always ---do--- know where to find
me," Julian grinned. "Dominion prisons, anywhere on the station--like
my bedroom, more than once, now. Apparently I'm not safe from you
anywhere."

"Safe is such a relative term, my dear...as we both have reason to
know." Garak gazed into his eyes a moment, the blue of his own oddly
lambent. Then he took Julian's hand from his shoulder and set it on
the bed, with an almost imperceptible squeeze, and rose.

"For instance," he added, turning back at the door. "May I suggest you
have something to eat before you walk too near an exhaust duct?" He
barely smiled, then left.

Julian stared after him with the wondering expression he often seemed
to acquire around Garak, followed by the laugh that also seemed
inevitable, and fell back bonelessly on the bed with a sigh.

Eventually, he rolled over and got up, pulling a robe on and going to
the terminal. He tapped keys, and when his contactee appeared, he said
"Quark, the Chief and I are going to need to double our holosuite time
for a while. I've got some catching up to do."

"How do you mean?"

"I mean I've been turning off at practice and we've only got a certain
amount of time before Keiko's birthday."

"Doctor...not that I object, but it seems strange to me that you want
to keep using perfectly good money for holosuites when all you and the
Chief have been doing lately is playing those instruments. It's a lot
of credit just for a nice setting to practice in."

"Oh, that's not all we do. Though from now through a month or so it
probably will be; as I said, I've been lazy and we've got several
pieces to finish."

"I hope your wife appreciates this trouble and expense."

"We haven't got much choice in the matter; it's a surprise for
everyone, and we need the cover--we can't practice at home. Well,
Miles can, and he does, but I can't, and we can't write anything
together here; either Molly or Keiko's sure to catch me out."

"What ---is--- that thing he plays, anyway? The one time I heard it, the
vibrations set my teeth on edge."

Julian smirked. "It's called a cello. Humans usually find the sound
soothing. He's been playing since he was a boy."

"And he never got any better?"

"Quark, just book us Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for the next
month, will you?"

"It's your credit."

"That's right. It is." He broke the connection and considered his
fingers with a sigh. Thirty-seven days plus a few, and so much for
those hard-won playing calluses...

(Dr. Bashir, I Presume)

"Yes, I know you thought it was me in the infirmary, but you ---mustn't---
slip on ---this---, no matter what--Miles and Keiko must NOT become known
to have been aware of the enhancements. If it's found that Miles knew,
he could be bounced from Fleet for not reporting it. Say nothing,
ever, under any circumstances," Julian muttered tightly. "Not in
public, not in private, nowhere. Have I made myself clear?"

Amsha squeezed his hand. "Of course we wouldn't endanger him, Jules--"

"That's what you and Father said about the three of ---us---, Mother."

"Julian, Miles and I will be all right; now that Richard and Amsha
know what might happen, they'll be more careful." Keiko tried to
mitigate, sitting on the sofa on Amsha's other side, in Julian's
parents' quarters.

"Bloody hope you'd know we wouldn't get your man cashiered, Jules,"
Richard muttered, waving the concern off as he continued pacing.

Miles, leaning against a port, arms folded and jaw tight, muttered
"Bloody hope ---you--- remember that."

Richard shot him a glance. "You. If ---you'd--- stopped us in time, this
rotting well wouldn't have happened!"

"And if ---you'd--- had the god-blasted brains not to open your mouth in
the middle of a public area and tell ANYbody who might be just out of
sight around any of a dozen--"

Keiko yelled "Miles!" at the same time Julian yelled "Father!"

Amsha sighed.

There was a silence.

"Well," Richard began again, pacing. "We're not going to take this
lying down. I'll arrange for legal counsel. We're going to fight this
thing all the way to the Federation Supreme Court!"

"That we will," Miles concurred, starting to pace, too. "Captain
Picard has quite a few contacts in the Judicial branch, and he--"

"Miles," Julian muttered, his animation disappearing into a lax,
stuporous defeat. "Father. We can't fight this."

Richard snapped "You'd better change that attitude ---right--- now if you
want to hang on to your career!"

Miles temporized "I know how you must feel, Julian. But we can't give
up! I'm NOT going to let this happen to you, believe I won't."

Amsha stroked Julian's shoulder and pleaded "Jules, listen to
them--they're trying to help you--"

"--and neither of them is listening to ---me---! I don't want to drag this
through the courts!"

"Damn it, Julian!" Miles turned away in frustration.

Richard shouted "We're a little past worrying about your ---wants---,
Jules! Now we've got a serious problem, and it's time to stop whining
and concentrate on coming up with a new plan!"

"He's no whiner," Miles growled at Richard. "None of this is ---his---
fault!"

"Yes, of course," Julian was saying wildly. "A new plan! Let's come up
with a ---new--- ---plan---! That's how we do things in this family, isn't it!
We don't face our problems, we come up with ---new plans---! Don't like
your job, well, move along to the next one--don't like the law, find a
way around it, but whatever you do, do NOT accept responsibility!"

"Julian," Keiko hissed. "You aren't helping!"

Richard steamed. "All those gifts, all those accomplishments, and you
still want to behave like a spoilt child! Well, you'd better grow up
---right--- now, or you're going to lose everything!"

"Him?" Miles demanded. "It's you you're worried about! He's the one
thing you've accomplished in your life--"

Julian rasped "Miles!"

Miles turned away abruptly. "Sorry, Richard. Man shouldn't speak like
that to his father-in-law." The words were obviously a complete
formality, intended to prevent an all-out rift, but Richard only
nodded tightly in acknowledgement.

Julian whispered "No. He ---was--- my father. Now..." He looked slowly up
at Richard. "...you're my architect. The man who designed a better son
to replace the defective one he was given. But your design has a
built-in flaw. It's illegal."

Richard exploded. "You're so smart, you know so much, you can sit
there and judge us, but you haven't the wit to see that we saved you
from a life of remedial education and underachievement!"

Sitting with Amsha's arm around her shoulders, Keiko, near tears as
Julian got up and strode away from them all toward the far port,
looked up wide-eyed, wounded for Julian's sake. She cried softly "You
don't know that! You didn't give him a chance!"

"Keiko," Amsha whispered in a halfhearted defense, "he was falling
behind--"

Julian spun. "I was six years old. You decided I was a failure in the
first grade!"

"You don't understand, Jules," Richard replied, "you never did!"

"No, ---you--- don't understand!" Julian roared in full throat. "I stopped
calling myself Jules when I was fifteen, and I found out what you'd
done to me!"

"His name," Miles said with deceptive softness, "is Julian."

"What difference does that make?!" Richard scoffed, leaning against
another port in an attitude of fury.

"It makes ---every--- difference, because ---I'm--- different, can't you
---see---?" Julian was shooting lightning bolts by this time. "Jules
Bashir DIED in that hospital--because YOU couldn't live with the shame
of having a son that didn't measure up!"

Keiko gasped "Julian--"

Amsha let go of Keiko and jumped up. "That's not true! We were never
ashamed of you, never!"

Julian was staring past her at Richard, trying his best not to shout
directly in her face. "I'm sorry, Mother--but the ---truth--- is--"

"No!" Amsha cut in again, desperately. "You don't understand! Your
little girl, she is bright, so far ahead of other children her age,
and your babies are still so young--you know you have done nothing to
harm Molly, you don't know what it's like to...to watch your son...to
watch him fall a little further behind every day...you know he's
trying, but something's holding him back--to be afraid for his
happiness, his safety--you don't know what it's like, to stay up every
night worrying that maybe you did something wrong, exposed yourself to
something dangerous, that maybe you weren't careful enough. Or maybe
there's something wrong with you, perhaps you don't know how to raise
a child, perhaps you haven't given him what he--"

Keiko had come up and was reaching for Amsha, just ahead of Richard,
but Amsha held a hand out to forestall them both. "No, Richard, Keiko;
this is important. Jules, you can condemn us for being immoral, or
illegal, or whatever you want to say, but you ---must--- understand this.
We did not do what we did because we were ashamed--but because you
were our ---son-----and we loved you."

Keiko, Miles and Richard were very still. Finally Julian closed his
eyes and pulled Amsha in for a hug. He released her slowly, and walked
just as slowly past her, past Richard and Keiko, to come to rest
against Miles at the other side of the room. Miles put his arms around
Julian and whispered "Julian me love. What do you want us to do?"

"Nothing. I'm going to visit Captain Sisko in the morning, and explain
the situation to him...and tender my Starfleet resignation."

Keiko wiped her cheeks, approaching to lay her hands on his shoulders.
"Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Yes." He gently broke Miles's hug and turned to squeeze Keiko close a
moment, then let her go, too. "I just want..." he sighed and moved for
the door, "...to leave this station as quietly as we can manage it."
The door hummed shut behind him.

Everyone stood there, staring after him, for a moment.

"Well," Keiko said finally. "Are we all in agreement that the man who
just walked out of here is going to remain a full member of Starfleet
Medical, no matter what any of us has to do?"

"Damn right he is," Richard almost whispered.

"Of course," Amsha said shudderingly, head bowing.

"Let's get to it, then," Miles said somberly.

("A Simple Investigation")

"If I can't be Agent O'Brien, I'm doing Dunlap."

"But Chief, we all ---love--- your Falcon."

"What you all love is the fact that ---you--- can give me a look that
promises me the world in bed that night and I'll always agree to play
him. Well, forget it. You play the bad guy for once."

"This whole business was my idea, I should get to play whatever part
I--"

"Keiko! He's being selfish again."

"Both of you just want to get your hands on that blonde."

They both protested vehemently, to no effect. She rolled her eyes and
said "Save it. Lady Wantsomore told me all about it. By the way,
Miles, she thinks your thug voice needs work."

"Let Julian do Falcon and my thug voice won't matter."

Julian contributed "Nonsense. He has a lovely thug voice, Keiko. Makes
me shake in my patent leathers."

"Well, I'll settle this. Next time...---I'm--- double-ought agent
Ishikawa, Julian's Falcon, Miles is Lady Wantsomore and Jadzia's doing
Dunlap! I imagine she'd like a chance at that blonde too."

"HEY!"

"Close your mouths before you drool. Or you could just stop arguing
about it, Julian, let Miles do Dunlap every now and then, and
Jadzia'll do Falcon. I'll do Wantsomore."

"Is this all right with Jadzia?" Julian asked suspiciously.

"It was her idea. Deal, Julian?" Keiko pressed.

Julian sulked.

"Julian..." Keiko leaned over and whispered into Julian's ear as Molly
came in with Hana in one arm and a bottle of replicated human milk in
the other hand, steadying it while Hana snacked.

"---What---?" Julian demanded. Keiko grabbed his shoulder to hold him
still and kept whispering.

Julian's eyes flew open, and he pulled away and jumped to his feet. "I
---NEVER---!"

Keiko grinned evilly at him.

Julian slumped. "Fine, I'll prove it to you. Chief, you can do Dunlap.
I won't say another word."

"Well! What'd you say to bring ---that--- about, darlin'?"

"NO! Don't tell him, Keiko, or the deal's off."

Keiko sighed. "That's only fair..." In the baby's room, there was a
clatter as of a toddler colliding with something, and a lusty Irish
wailing.

"Better catch that before Yoshi starts in," Miles said, and casually
brought Molly with him with a hand on her shoulder on his way to the
baby's room.

Once there, after Chairiste was picked up, checked for any possible
bruising, and comforted, Miles went down on one knee next to the
expectant Molly and said "Well, lovey? D'jou catch it?"

"Jadzia says it's the black leather."

Miles's face was overtaken by a wickedly joyful expression. "Damn, but
you've got good ears. ---That's--- why he always insists ---I--- do
Falcon...?"

"She says his eyes dilate when you do the thug voice, too."

"Oh reeeally, now, Mr. Bashir," Miles murmured in the thug voice.
"Anything else?"

"Jadzia thinks there's a reason he always pulls his tux jacket closed
when you shove your gun against his back."

Miles's eyes went wide and he clapped a hand to his mouth to stifle
his reaction. "Jadzia really said that?"

"Mom says she did."

"Mother Macha. No wonder Keiko decided she wants to play, too.
Speaking of black leather...maybe we could trick Mom and Daddy Julian
into doing Falcon every now and then..."

"I want my cut. Holosuite time of my own. I pick the program. Yeah,
yeah, I know, within reason. What am I gonna do, 'Vulcan Love Slave
Part Two: The Revenge'? Give me credit for some taste, Da. And I wanna
bring Amanda and Yedrin, if it's okay with their folks."

"O'course, lovey. Even a thug should pay his debts...y'know Daddy
Julian always has liked it high-caliber..." Molly smirked.

(Later that night...)

Molly held the screening vial up to the faint light coming from the
doorway and tapped it a few times, then scanned it. The scanner
bleeped softly and she examined the readout, then nodded and started
to tiptoe out.

A soft sibilant voice stopped her in her tracks. "How'd I do this
time, Molly?"

Molly whispered back "B-negative. It's you. Um...thanks."

"There's more where it came from, sweetie. I'll see you in the
morning."

Molly continued out and let the door close.

("Business as Usual")

"All right, Benjamin, once more. Who is Chairiste?"

"Miles's niece. No. Half-sister."

"Right. So Chairiste is Molly and Yoshi's what?"

"Um...aunt."

"And Hana's...?"

"...cousin?"

"Great-aunt, Benjamin."

"Right. Got it."

"So who is she to Keiko and Julian?"

"Sister-in-law."

"And Nerys?"

"...niece?"

"That's right. Nerys is everybody's aunt but Yoshi's, though that's
probably what he'll call her. All right, on to Hana. Who is Hana's
mother?"

"That's a trick question, Old Man."

"Technically."

"Molly."

"So Yoshi is Hana's what?"

"Damn it, they're practically twins in age!"

"But genetically..."

Sisko sighed in long-suffering. "Yoshi is Hana's uncle."

"And Miles is Hana's what?"

"He's her father, in every way that's important."

"And we're all agreed on that, but this stuff does keep coming up and
we don't want to seem like we don't care enough to try and understand
their situation, do we?"

"Miles is Hana's grandfather. And Keiko's her grandmother."

"And Julian is...?"

"Well, someone's got to be her father, and if it's not Yoshi or the
Chief it must be him."

"Remember it, Benjamin, you may not have time during party talk to go
through a process of elimination. It's not that hard, anyway, she's
got Julian's eyes."

"True."

"Okay now, on to Yoshi..."

"Later, Old Man, we're here." Sisko tapped the door signal; it slid
open to reveal Molly holding a frosting dispenser, wearing an apron
that drug the floor. "Hi!"

"Hello, Molly," Jadzia smiled. "How's it coming?"

"I think I've got the hang of this pneumatic frosting thingy, here.
Come on in, if you think you'll fit."

"We ---would--- seem to be latecomers," Sisko observed; the place was
packed.

"This way to the buffet," Molly said, led them through the crowd, and
then vanished again, presumably to continue work on the cake.

"Jadzia, Captain--I didn't think you two were going to make it!"

"Of course we're here, Keiko--how could you think we'd miss the first
real birthday party you've had since we've known you? Especially just
to have a long boring discussion with a bunch of reactionary old Trill
Science Ministry fuds?" Jadzia hugged Keiko. "Worf asked me to send
his regrets--he was planning to come, but General Martok's ship just
docked, and he said he had business with Worf that couldn't wait. What
have you done with the children? Hid them under the rug?"

"They're at the care center, except for Molly. But the Artinsseks are
here with Amanda and the baby--oh, excuse me, I think Molly needs
help--" she vanished in the general melee.

"Hello, Jadzia, Captain! I'm glad you two could come."

"Doctor. I'm afraid I won't be able to stay long, save me a piece of
cake--I was supposed to meet Jake and Kasidy here."

"They were playing Tongo on the coffee table last I saw, with Luma and
Imachram."

"Ooh, a Tongo game," Jadzia grinned, and started threading her way
toward the living room set.

Sisko was pouring himself a glass of something fizzy as Julian took
the opportunity of having a personage as important as the Captain to
converse with to get the heck off his feet for a couple of minutes.
Sisko noticed this and asked "I trust you're fully recovered from your
experience with the Jem'Hadar, Doctor?"

"Oh, yes, physically."

"And Keiko and the Chief?"

"Um...there ---is--- a blood screening hypo on the table next to the bed
in our room..."

"I can't say I blame any of you one bit for that," Sisko said in the
rumbling depths of his voice, "though I think having to look at it
whenever I turned in that direction would give me pause."

"It did for a while, but we hardly notice it any more. It's more a
reminder, now, never to take each other for granted, and believe me,
we don't."

Sisko nodded somberly and started to sip his drink, then looked at it
again and asked "This isn't the same stuff Quark served at your
wedding reception, is it, Doctor?"

"What? Oh, no, no--Miles made Quark destroy the recipe for that. Then
he got into the main computer and wiped every available copy."

"Upset over that incident with Keiko and the Old Man, I take it?"

"Partly that. Did I ever tell you where Miles and I went when we
vanished from Quark's?"

"Jadzia did."

"I might've suspected. In any case, he blames the punch for the fact
that our reception was the party that all others on this station are
still being measured by. I do yet wonder where security was during all
that, though I know where Odo was."

"They'd probably had too much reception themselves to worry. Besides,
it seems to have had the property of making people...disorderly, but
not actively irritable or destructive."

"We'd noticed that, too," Julian grinned, then saw Molly leading Garak
a roundabout but fairly clear route to them. "Garak, ---there--- you are!"
He stood up and hugged Garak, quick and firm, which caused Garak to
drop the giftwrapped package he was carrying. "Oh, sorry." Julian
leaned down, picked the box up and perfunctorily gave it back to
Garak, then laid a hand on the Cardassian's shoulder in apology as he
turned to Molly, asking "How's the cake coming, lovey?"

Molly had a bug-eyed and amused look on her face, but she managed to
say only "I'm nearly done, but I want to go check on the babies before
we make Mom blow the candles out."

"And how many candles are there, Miss O'Brien?" Garak asked, composure
largely recovered.

Molly grinned at him. "Mom said to put as many as I want, so I just
filled up all the space that doesn't say 'Happy Birthday Mom'--oops."
Molly developed a disturbed expression and lunged off through the
crowd.

"Sounds like a typographical error," Sisko observed.

"I think she'll be able to turn a 'Mom' into a reasonably recognizable
'Keiko.' Let me just get the door." Julian scuttled off to do so.

"Hello, Ziyal! Nerys," he asked, conducting the two of them in, "why
are you using the signal?"

"We can hear the ruckus even out in the corridor; we wanted an escort.
Is Odo here yet?"

"He's overseeing the Tongo game. He just gravitated in that direction
when people started gambling, even though they're only using chips.
Garak's over by the buffet table, Ziyal."

"Thank you, Doctor--here, Nerys, I'll take your present with mine,"
the girl said, appropriating Nerys's wrapped box, and began to thread
her way through the room.

Kira asked "Quark's not here, is he?"

"He is as much persona non grata to Keiko as he is to the rest of us,"
Julian said grimly. "Let's not talk about him."

"No argument here."

Molly ran by with a double handful of white frosting.

"Problem?" Nerys asked, eyebrows on the rise.

"She'll handle it, I'm sure," Julian said as they rejoined Sisko,
Nerys and Garak; Ziyal was just coming to nod to Sisko, then smile up
at Garak and press her palm to his. Julian continued "She was quite
insistent about decorating the cake herself."

"A very studious, responsible child, isn't she?" Garak observed. "Do
sit down, my dear." Ziyal sank to the chair Julian had been in as
Garak positioned himself on the armrest.

"She's always been that way," Julian agreed.

"Still, as a Cardassian, I must admire her devotion to her younger
siblings. An admirable trait for a child so young, to place such
instinctive importance on caring for them."

"Oh, no--is she ---still--- saying Hana's hers?" Nerys sighed. "I'd hoped
she'd be over that by now."

"I think it's sweet," Kasidy said, coming up to join them. "She's so
protective." She put an arm around Sisko's waist.

"It is pleasant, in a way," Julian agreed. "So many children would
quite understandably be resentful if two--temporarily, three--younger
siblings were suddenly dropped into the middle of their life. But as
her father, I have to consider the potential ramifications of this
behavior to her own growth. I still haven't decided if this is
something we should be actively discouraging. Keiko's worried, Gods
know. Miles, I believe, is trusting to Molly's instincts about it,
especially since the, uh...the changeling bit, though she ---is--- still
so young..."

Jadzia had appeared at Julian's elbow. "Oh, I wouldn't worry," she
said, patting him. "I'm sure it's just a phase. You wouldn't believe
the phases I've seen Lela's and Tobin's and--"

"--and everybody else's children go through, yes, I'm sure you've seen
quite a number, Jadzia," Julian forestalled her; she giggled as he
laid a companionable arm over her shoulders.

"What do you say, Benjamin? Jake's had his share of phases," Jadzia
wondered.

"It's difficult for me to form an opinion about a situation like this,
since he's an only child. I do wish he'd had the opportunity to grow
up with a brother or sister." Sisko just barely smiled. "A daughter in
Jake's own age group...would have been nice."

"I'm beginning to think we should put our collective foot down,
Julian," Nerys grumped. A couple of people looked at her oddly at the
word "we", but Julian didn't seem to find it strange. "You know I
didn't really have a childhood, and it's not something you can ever
get back. I'd hate to see Molly grow up so much before her time.
Molly?" Molly was trying to get around them to the door. "Sweetheart,
where are you going?"

"I wanted to visit the babies before we give Mom the cake."

"Molly..." Kira lowered herself to one knee and put an arm around
Molly. "---I--- was just at the care center, before I came here. They're
all fine. Yoshi's asleep and Hana had just eaten; she was playing with
a mobile."

"How about Chairiste?"

Nerys smiled. "I helped the Bolian boy get some kind of whipped fruit
out of her hair."

"Sweet potatoes."

"What?"

"Was it orangeish-pink?"

"Yes, it was."

"She likes sweet potatoes. And applesauce."

"Molly, why don't you show me Keiko's cake, hm? I'm hopeless at art
myself, you know, let me admire your handiwork."

"Um...okay." Molly allowed Kira to pick her up and bear her away
through the crowd, though she looked a bit anxious.

Garak, Jadzia, Julian, Kasidy, Ziyal and Sisko were all quiet a
moment.

"Eesh," Julian finally muttered. "Maybe Nerys is right."

---------

"Fly? Of course I can fly. Do these look vestigial to you?" Imachram
swept one wing slightly--any more than slightly and it would have
created a hurricane through the room that would have blown the tongo
wheel over. The central joints of her wings nearly touched the ceiling
when she stood and the main flight feathers brushed the floor.

"Could you fly now?" Amanda Artinssek asked.

"I'm afraid there's not enough room, dear," Imachram consoled her,
patting her shoulder with one clawed hand.

"How about on the Promenade?" Molly asked. "Amanda wants to be a
hopper pilot when she grows up. She's never seen a sentient person fly
for real."

"Neither have you," Amanda reminded her.

"---I--- don't want to be a hopper pilot," Molly reminded Amanda.

"Not on the Promenade," Odo interjected. "It's quite against safety
regulations for flying species to do so there, unless it's at walking
speed or through the upper level near the ceiling, and ---only--- if it is
their sole means of locomotion. The holosuite is a more appropriate
location for that sort of activity."

"---Anybody--- can fly in a holosuite," Amanda grumped.

Keiko, over by the dining table where the cake was and presents were
stacked, was saying "And this is from...our clan-sister Nerys." She
grinned at Kira, who grinned back. Keiko ripped the Happy Birthday
paper off and pulled up the lid of a flat, square box--then slammed it
back down again before anyone else could get a look inside. "Nerys, my
God!"

"It's to replace the one that was destroyed at your wedding shower.
Your wedding to Julian, I mean."

"You should've given it to me in private!"

"It's just a nightgown, Keiko," Jadzia said with her "impish"
sparkle-eyed smile. "It was my idea for her to give it to you here."

"I could've figured that," Keiko muttered.

"'Just' a nightgown...?" Julian demanded.

"Yeah," Miles joined in. "Y'know we never DID get the final word on
exactly what went on at that bloody shower."

Silence fell. All the women in the room glanced around at each other,
then broke into giggles, including Imachram, who emitted a sort of
high cheeping noise.

"And we aren't going to get it now, either, are we," Julian grumbled
in resignation.

Ziyal slipped up next to Kira and whispered something in her ear.
Nerys put an arm around her shoulders and began to whisper back. As
the girl listened, her eyes got larger, her mouth twisted in what
appeared to be an attempt to swallow her own lips, and she began to
flush a gradually darker shade of lavender. Finally she was forced to
hide her face in Nerys's shoulder, shaking with suppression of
scandalized glee, while the Major finished filling her in.

"Nerys, you ---can't--- be serious," she choked.

"Oh, all of us were very earnest about it," Nerys murmured back.

"Um...it ---does--- sound...well-----fun---," Ziyal managed to hiccup. Garak
handed her a glass of something which she took several hasty swallows
of. He then conducted her hyperventilating person to a chair. Sisko,
who had stayed for cake after all, leaned down to whisper to Kasidy
"Kas..."

"It's a woman thing, Ben."

"In my office is an authorization for Level Four safety inspections
for all docked commercial ships, just ---waiting--- for my thumbscan..."

Kasidy growled.

"Come on, just tell me about the nightgown."

"Did you ever play flag tag?"

"Um...in elementary school, yes. Each team has a certain color flag,
everyone wears a few...when all your flags have been pulled off by
members of the other team, you're out...I don't quite remember all the
rules."

"That's close enough. Well, we were trying to decide who Luma Saire's
gift--she's one of Julian's people--would look best on, and we decided
to have our prime candidates all model it, and we'd been drinking
champagne and things were getting a little silly...well, maybe I
should use the word 'rowdy'..."

"The Chief said the word the Old Man used was 'friendly.'"

"You men ---do--- have a memory for that sort of thing, don't you. Rowdy
in a friendly sort of way. In any case, while Keiko had the gown
on...it's a gauzy little number...um, to make a long story short, it
became the flags. And a few of us--not me, I was laughing too
hard--became the team after Keiko. She's ---extremely--- agile in a
crisis, by the way."

"I know, I've seen her run through Quark's. Do Miles and Julian know
about this?"

"They have the general idea."

"Tell me two more things and I'll let the secret lie. Did Major Kira
participate in the 'flag tag'?"

"She got the last...um, 'flag'. That's why we picked her to give Keiko
the new one. If you tell her I told you she'll kill me."

"She won't hear it from me. The other thing...is 'flag tag' the only
secret, concerning that shower, that half the women on this station
are protecting?"

"No. And you just used your two questions."

Sisko grumbled.

Leeta was pushing a wrapped package into Keiko's hands. "I got this on
our trip to Risa--it's why I grabbed you and pulled you away from the
bed when you were going to slide that garment bag underneath. I had it
hidden there."

"You two shared a room?" Miles said.

"Well of ---course--- we did," Leeta expostulated, all innocence, as Keiko
grinned and started ripping into the package, "she was ---pregnant---! I
couldn't keep an eye on her from a different ---room---, could I?"

"Nor, apparently," Jadzia whispered to Kira, "from a different bed.
They specifically asked for a single."

Kira's lips quirked. "Hey, I've slept with Keiko too. It's nice to
have someone to help rearrange you when you can't easily turn over by
yourself. Or maybe they just wanted to cuddle. Keiko's good at that."

"So's Leeta," Jadzia murmured. Kira looked at her. "So I ---hear---,"
Jadzia added defensively.

Miles sighed. Julian was sidling past him toward the main bedroom,
taking his shirt off, since it had just had cake regurgitated on it by
the baby Artinssek. "Miles, we've discussed this. Relax," he murmured.

"I know, I know...it's not like I mind, anyway."

"Of ---course--- you don't. Such a jealous creature you are, Chief..."
Julian finished pulling the shirt out of his waistband and over his
head.

"Hey! No need for name-calling. If I'm jealous of ---any---one...you've
gotta admit, Keiko has taste..."

"Oh, she does, right enough."

Everybody oohed as Keiko held up a bathing suit that seemed to consist
of maybe half a dozen shimmering red strings, or of one such ribbon
knotted together in half a dozen places. "Leeta! It's beautiful!"

"You just ---have--- to try it on for me later...so I can see if it
---fits---," Leeta added guiltily in Miles's general direction. "She was
pregnant when I bought it, I couldn't check the size."

"This embroidery is Tholian silk! Thank you!" Keiko threw her arms
around Leeta and was, briefly, almost entirely concealed in the taller
woman's bosom.

"I think I'm getting excited," Julian muttered, barely able to keep
from laughing out loud.

"Me too," Jadzia concurred with a grin, from Julian's immediate right.

"Go put some clothes on, Julian, we have guests," Miles admonished
him, but altered the shove between the shoulderblades he was about to
send Julian on his way with to a pat on the rump instead. "Unless you
want to give Keiko her present half-naked."

"I'm going, I'm going..."

"Might as well go grab your harp, too, she's nearly done."

"Right. Back directly."

"Grab his what?" Jadzia murmured.

"You'll see."

Jadzia asked "Say...Chief, you're closer to Rom than most of us...what
does he think of Leeta and Keiko?"

"Don't think it's occurred to him. Besides, I think sometimes the
two're only putting on a show to drive us all crazy with speculating.
None of us know for a certainty that there ---is--- a Leeta and Keiko,
beyond gossip-generated artifact."

"Yeah. Sometimes it seems like gossip ---is--- reality on this station,"
Jadzia noted.

Miles snickered. "Does that make you God of DS9?"

Jadzia gave him a look as Keiko was saying "And this one's
from...Jake," peering at the tag of a present that had been wrapped
with more heart than skill. "'To my favorite teacher.'" She tore
several layers of paper and tape off, dropping the handfuls on the
table, and grinned. "Your stories! You had them bound!"

"I wanted it to be something that'd say thanks for pushing me to the
Pennington school," Jake explained, smiling, as he put an arm around
her and squeezed.

Keiko positioned the leatherclad volume on her growing pile and picked
up another box. "This one...Nog?"

"He asked me to bring it for him. He said he's not really comfortable
around people on the station since Quark and Gaila started in with
the, um...you know. The weapons dealing. And the same for Rom. They're
both pretty upset right now," Jake said.

"I understand. Tell them thank-you for me..." she pulled an isolinear
rod from the box and looked at the label. "A Standard/Ferengi
dictionary?"

"He gave me one, too, a while back. It's his way of saying thanks to
us for teaching him to read."

"It's very thoughtful." She replaced the rod in the box, then attacked
the bow crowning the box nearly the size of Molly. Revealed, the gift
was a large, latticeworked, embossed metal planter containing a bonsai
tree and an assortment of pretty rocks. She looked around for Miles.
"So ---that's--- what happened to Mariko! Miles? Where are you?"

"Mariko is the bonsai," Jadzia whispered to Sisko.

"Not me," Miles said, coming in carrying his cased cello. "I only
stole the tree from your nursery."

"Then who--" her scanning gaze paused on the waving Jadzia. "Jadzia?
This filigree looks hand-worked!"

"Thank Audred," Jadzia said. "Decorative metalwork was a hobby of
hers."

"Thank you!" Keiko darted over, hugged the stuffings out of Jadzia and
then returned to the table while Sisko wondered "Are you ever going to
stop coming up with things I don't know about you, Old Man?"

"Hey, it could take a while. Eight lifetimes in here..."

"And this one...Garak." Keiko pulled the lid off a box and gasped as
yards of shimmering fabric spilled from it. She held up the item,
which was revealed as a cream-colored length of rich material,
embroidered with a stylized pattern of elegant birds and blossoming
ornamental trees. "A stole? It's...it's gorgeous!" She threw the
shining silk around her shoulders as everyone made noises of
appreciation.

"I am glad you like it, Madame," Garak said as she looked up at him
with a delighted expression. He apparently didn't expect her to try to
hug him, too, but it didn't seem to bother him. Ziyal was smiling at
him too. "I had intended to give it to you at the birth of your
younger daughter, but the thread for the tree blossoms hadn't arrived
from Betazed."

"It's really beautiful. Thank you." People were inching over to touch
the almost luminescent fall of cloth. "I just hope it doesn't get
stroked to pieces before I have a chance to wear it anywhere. It's
kind of irresistible. Let's see...Molly's!" She pulled the wrapping
off a flat rectangle. "Good night, Molly, what happened?" It was a
framed painting, and what could be seen of it depicted a garden or
forest scene; watercolor, not quite professional quality, but very
pretty all the same except for the large blotch of screaming blue
paint that obliterated half the picture.

"It ---was--- the atrium garden of the house on Bajor," Molly explained
dryly, "but Chairiste decided she wanted to help me with it. Now it's
a concept piece."

"And a finer concept piece I've never seen," Julian said, coming back
in a billowy white shirt with a yoke, carrying a very big, handled
case. He had it in both arms, though, rather than by the handle. Garak
saw how heavy it was and went to help him with it, following his lead
over to a couch, where they deposited the object.

"He's right, Molly. We'll hang it by the door as a way of
commemorating Chairiste's visit," Keiko assured Molly with a hug. "I
know how hard you must have worked on it, sweetie, thank you."

"Yeah, well, easel come, easel go..."

Miles groaned, along with Jake and several other people as some,
including Julian, cracked up. "Julian! I ---know--- she didn't get that
from ---me---!"

"Don't look at ---me---." Julian fended off blame with a raised hand. ---My---
line was 'That's one way to start a blue period'."

Jadzia turned around and swatted him as Imachram extended a wing and
whopped him in the face with it.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Thank you, " Keiko said to them both. "Julian, what is that you and
Garak had, over there?"

"A surprise. Go on, finish opening the other presents, then Miles and
I will show you."

"Okay...this one's from Empala..."

---------

"Good Lord," Kasidy said. "What ---is--- that? A giant harp-shaped sieve?"

"That," Miles said, "is a Bashir Special, one Luchtigern by name,
designed and constructed, with a good bit of help from his best
friend, by that gangly bit who's tuning it up as we speak."

"I've never seen a harp strung like that," Sisko observed, and Julian
said "And you won't elsewhere. Essentially, it's two different harps.
See the way some of the strings are just slightly offset? Those are
half-tones," he explained.

"Which ordinary Irish harps don't have all of," Miles added. "That's
why it's so big. He had to be able to get his fingers between the
strings. He has a hell of a time with melisma runs."

"Julian? You can ---play--- that?" Keiko said wonderingly.

"After a fashion, and after months of practice," Julian said
offhandedly, turning his tuning key.

"He's being modest again," Miles snorted in mild disgust. "He can play
two melody lines at the same time if the chord intervals in each are
short enough."

"What are the strings made of?" Imachram wondered, leaning close to
peer at the shining metal strands.

"Bronze," Julian said. "A very old method of stringing."

"One that cuts up your fingers," Miles added. "Bronze strings were
usually played with the fingernails, and he can't grow his long enough
to keep his fingertips from touching the strings entirely, if he still
wants to be able to do things like perform surgery."

"I envy Imachram that ability," Julian muttered.

Miles continued "Ancient harpers used to practice all day in the pitch
dark until there was blood running down the strings; he gave 'em a
real go on the gore front. It got so I was bringing a dermal
regenerator to every practice. Not that he'd use it after the first
couple of weeks."

"It was keeping me from forming calluses," Julian murmured, touching a
string as he turned the key, his ear very close to the harp.

"Don't you require some sort of tuning device, Doctor?" Odo asked.
"There are...hm...one hundred twenty-seven strings there, after all."

"Mister perfect pitch?" Miles scoffed. "I've got a damn good ear, and
practicing keeps it that way, but I nearly decked Julian about the
dozenth time he stopped us to tell me my E was out. Turned out the peg
was loose. You about done there, Julian?"

"Nearly."

"I still find it amazing that anything human could play that," Keiko
muttered.

"Maybe they couldn't, but something a little more than human can,"
Miles reminded her.

"Ah, yes, your enhanced hand-eye coordination," Garak nodded. "This
certainly promises to be interesting."

"We hope so," Julian half-smiled trepidatiously at him, as he put his
tuning key down and started getting situated on the couch near Miles,
leaving him enough room for his bow arm to move. "We managed to write
several of our own pieces in honor of Kei's birthday."

Keiko settled to the floor next to Kira, still wrapped in Garak's
stole, saying "Wow. No one's ever written me music before, not even
Miles."

"The ideas are mostly his," Miles admitted. "I love playing, but
composing..."

"And the technical expertise in theory and notation is courtesy of
Miles," Julian said. "Ready, Chief?"

"As I'll ever be. Harpers of ancient Eriu were a category of the
Druids, and they separated harp pieces into three types--sleep-strain,
wail-strain and laugh-strain--"

"Suantraigh, Goltraigh and Geantraigh," Julian added.

Miles eyed him sidelong and continued "--and we tried to keep to that
while we wrote. This first little ditty falls under Geantraigh, and we
call it...oh, you say it, it's ---your--- pet name for her."

"'Keiko, My Keiko,'" Julian said. "Miles thinks it's silly."

"Sillier than naming the harp after his cat?" Keiko wondered.

"I think it's sweet," Ziyal asserted.

"Play!" Leeta added.

Miles looked at Julian, who sketched the time with one hand, and
began.

Through the round of applause that swept the room about seven minutes
later, Luma managed to half-shout "Doctor, I thought your fingers
moved fast when the hemorrhage inhibitor field cut out and you had to
finish a corticomedular replacement without it. That was ---amazing---!"

"It was beautiful!" Keiko was throwing herself on Miles, then Julian,
nearly squishing him under the harp's sounding box. "Easy, Kei! This
thing weighs as much as you do," Julian cautioned her, hugging back.
"The truss rod's made of duranium, it was the only way the wood frame
could withstand the tension of so many bronze strings." As Miles
answered questions about the song's composition, Julian looked over
his shoulder to where Garak was perched on the sofa back just behind
him. "What'd you think, Elim?"

"I think that you used to be almost predictable, Doctor," he replied,
softly enough that only Julian and Keiko could hear him. "And that
you've obviously grown past that. Though I ---do--- remember you fondly
that way."

"I'll never equal you for unpredictability," Julian smiled up at him.
"You're my role model."

"I'll try to live up to the expectation."

Keiko had looked up at Garak, then back at Julian, then up again at
Garak, then raised a hand to her mouth, failing to completely hide a
knowing grin as she scuttled back to her seat by Nerys.

"What has got into her and Molly, I wonder?" Julian puzzled. "Are you
hiding some joke from me, Garak?"

"Joke? I swear to you, my dear Julian, I'm not hiding any joke from
you."

"Play another one!" Amanda Artinssek demanded. "That was ---neat---!"

"It certainly was," Kira grinned. "I've heard ---you--- play, of course,
Miles, but you really outdid yourself on that piece."

"Funny you should say. The next one up's called 'Clan-Sister'," Miles
told her.

Ziyal put an arm around Kira and squeezed. Kira blinked. "For ---me---?"

"Why not for you? Julian, give me a slower time, all right? I'm still
having trouble with the middle section on this one."

The reaction this time was much quieter, but no less heartfelt.

Kasidy whispered "That was...was--"

"Moving," Leeta sobbed prettily, blotting her eyes with a paper
napkin.

"It wasn't really sad, but I sort of want to cry, too," Jake said.

Miles shrugged. "Goltraigh. What do you think, Nerys?"

"It sounds like the story of my life, all right," Kira whispered.
"Thanks, you two. Can I get a recording of it?"

"We already made recordings in the holosuite," Julian said.

"Play more!" Molly demanded, seconded by a bunch of people pulling
themselves together, with various words of appreciation and
encouragement to Miles and Julian.

"'Stars' next?" Julian asked.

"Everybody'll fall asleep."

"We'll play 'White Water' afterward and wake everyone."

"Right, then..."

---------

"No, Constable," Garak was saying to Odo as the two filed out the door
with the larger portion of the guests, "Chairiste is Molly's aunt, not
the other way around."

"I thought Chairiste was the younger one. She's certainly smaller."

"That's irrelevant in this case."

"Are either of the babies hers?" Empala wondered.

"Chairiste's? She's less than two years old," Kasidy protested.

"Well, one of the babies is Molly's--the girl, I think--so I thought
maybe--"

"---Molly's---?" one of Keiko's students cut in incredulously. "She's
---seven---!"

"I thought Hana was Doctor Bashir's," Akula said. "She does look like
him."

"Hana ---is--- Julian's," Garak said reasonably. "And Molly's."

"Is that even ---legal---?" Miles's technician Jarvis wondered, alarmed.

"Molly's mother actually carried the child," Garak interjected.

"You mean Hana? Does that mean--wait a minute, does that mean
Chairiste is the baby Major Kira had?"

"Major Kira had a baby?" said a friend of Leeta's who lived most of
the time on Bajor.

"Kind of," Ziyal explained. "She had the Chief and the Professor's
baby."

"Then the baby Keiko had..."

"Was Yoshi!" exclaimed Jarvis triumphantly.

"No, no. That was Hana," Garak said.

"Then who had Chairiste?"

"Nobody had Chairiste," Jadzia cut in. "No, I mean--Miles's father had
Chairiste."

"At his age? Can humans that old carry babies?" Odo wanted to know.

"No, I mean his stepmother had her. Miles's stepmother, I mean, not
his father's."

"And that was which, Hana?"

"No, wasn't that Molly?"

"Which one is Molly?"

"The big one that looks like Keiko, isn't it?"

"Right. And Hana is her daughter."

"Hana looks like Dr. Bashir and Keiko, though."

"---I--- think she looks more like the Chief than Keiko."

"Hana's his granddaughter."

"Whose?"

"Shut up! Everybody just shut up!" Leeta's friend snapped. "I'm
getting a headache. I'll never remember all this. I'm just going to
assume the children all belong to all three grownups. No, wait. All
four grownups."

"They ---do--- all belong to all the adults," Garak smirked. "According to
them."

Kira looked up tiredly from her spot in a chair, feeding Yoshi. "Give
it up. I lived with the whole bunch, in various stages of development,
for months, and it still confuses me."

"Gladly," Odo snorted. "Thank you, Chief, Doctor, Professor. A
thoroughly enjoyable evening."

"We're glad you could come," Keiko said; she was being hauled into the
bedroom by Leeta, who had the red monofilament swimsuit in her other
hand.

"Yes, thanks everyone for coming," Julian said, picking Chairiste up
before she could charge out the door with the general flood. Ziyal got
up from her seat on the arm of Kira's chair after exchanging a peck
with her and went out to where Garak was waiting for her.

"Lordy," Miles muttered, plopping onto a couch. "I'm beginning to
think the ability to describe how everyone in this family is related
to everyone else will be Odo's new security check for Dominion
infiltrators on the station."

"Most of the station would fail," Julian said, setting Chairiste down
and going to help Molly pick up all the wrapping paper and party
dishes. "First thing in the morning, ---I'd--- probably fail."

"Dax gets the sneakiest look on her face whenever she has to explain
it to someone," Kira chuckled. "I think she gets a kick out of
confusing people."

"Does sound like her. She's the only one we didn't have to repeat
things to fifty times before she got it," Miles said.

"Eight lifetimes of familial connections to sort through," Julian
surmised. "But Garak understood at once, too. Used to it, with his
culture's families being so large and complex, I suppose."

"Ooh!" came a happy Leeta-squeal from the bedroom.

"It sounds like the suit fits," Kira surmised.

"Or it's way too small," Miles muttered, making Molly snort.

"You know, I don't think, in five years of working with Captain Sisko,
that I've ever heard him sing before," Kira observed. "He's got a
great voice, doesn't he?"

"Not surprising, with a speaking voice like that," Julian noted.

"Dunno 'bout that," Miles disagreed. "You're always going on about
---my--- speaking voice, and I sing like a truckload of gravel falling
down a hill."

"Oh, hush, you do not. Falling gravel wouldn't put the children to
sleep."

"Not to mention Keiko and me," Kira pointed out.

"How does it look?" Keiko asked, coming out of the bedroom sort of
wearing the suit, with the beaming Leeta in tow.

Miles glanced over. "How does what look?"

"I think I can see Tholian silk glinting," Nerys offered.

"Shut up, you two," Julian said. "You're ravishing, my Kei."

"It's pretty, Mom," Molly contributed. "But doesn't that, uh, that one
part there hurt a little?"

"Leeta says you get used to it," Keiko shrugged. "Is Garak gone
already, Julian?"

"Yes, why?"

"Oh...no reason," Keiko smirked, exchanged the expression with Molly,
and pulled Leeta back into the bedroom with her by one hand.

"What was that all about, Molly?" Kira wondered.

"Oh...nothing," Molly giggled, running for the disposal chute with an
enormous load of shredded paper.

---------

The door of the O'Brien's quarters slid open; it was the older child,
whatever her name actually was. "Hello, um--"

"Molly."

"Thanks," Jarvis stammered. "I'm sorry to bother you all so late, but
my friend Thomas left his carrysling, and we've got a transport to
catch in the morning."

"Someone at the door?" came Chief O'Brien's sleep-blurred voice from
somewhere back in the hallway.

Molly turned at the door to look off to her left and behind her. "I've
got it, Da, your technician's boyfriend forgot his purse. Go back in
the bedroom, you're naked."

"I am? Great Scott, so I am. Thanks, sweetie."

Molly turned back to the glaze-eyed, embolism-suffering Jarvis. "It's
in the spare room with some other things people forgot. I'll be right
back." She padded away, her nightgown trailing on the carpet behind
her.

He had started to breathe again and managed to thank her when she came
back with the bag; she handed it to him, returned his cordial
goodnight and the door slid shut. Shaking his head in dismissal of it
all, he turned to start back to his quarters.


("Ties of Blood and Water")

"I thought you should know that Gamorr's condition has deteriorated.
He'll be dead within the hour."

"Thank you for the information, Doctor."

"Is that it? 'Thank you for the information'? Gamorr is ---dying---."

"I heard you."

Julian paused, then said "Nerys...he wants to see you."

"Well, I don't want to see him."

"Major, please. It's almost over. There's no more questions to ask, no
more work to be done. Just go to his quarters...and sit with him."

"I said no. Don't ask me again."

Julian tensed. "Fine. You must do what you want, but I think you're
making a mistake. Regardless of what Gamorr's done in the past, he
doesn't deserve to die alone. Nobody does. You know that better than
most." He turned to leave, then looked back. "Letting him die alone
won't change what happened to your father, Nerys."

Her head jerked up, eyes huge.

"Had you forgotten?" Julian said softly. "You told me. One night early
on in your pregnancy, when Miles and Keiko were on Bajor with Molly,
and we slept in together?"

She was motionless.

He continued softly "You were crying. You tried to get up without
waking me, but we were wrapped together in a coverlet. I asked you
what was wrong..."

"I tried to tell you it was just the damn hormone surges..."

"But I could see you'd had a nightmare, and I wouldn't let you up, so
you told me."

"I don't remember..."

"I think you do. Some, at least." He came back into the room and over
to where she was standing by the prayer mandala. "You told me that you
missed your father's death by less than an hour."

"Less than an hour," she repeated, whispering, eyes turned away from
him.

He touched her shoulder. "You always told yourself that it was bad
luck, bad timing, will of the Prophets...but the truth was--"

"--I didn't have to go when I did. I could have stayed a while longer.
I saw my chance to get out and I took it. I saw so much death during
the occupation, I felt so much pain...but my father, he was my
strength, and I couldn't stand to see that strength slipping away, so
I ran..."

"Please, Nerys. Don't run from Gamorr. I don't like the thought of the
way you'd feel afterward."

"He reminds me...so much of my father. Going through it again...I just
can't face it."

"You can. You have to, for your own sake, if not his. You're one of
the strongest people I've ever met, Nerys..."

She was still, under his hand. Finally she whispered "I owe it to my
father...to get it right this time..." Her head bowed. "I'll go. Just
give me a moment."

He kissed her cheek gently and left.

---------

"Cause of death was CNS failure brought on by Iaran Fel syndrome. One
witness was present--a Major Kira Nerys of the Bajoran Militia.
Witness's statement is attached." He closed the entry and turned to
her. "Nerys, we're done here."

"That's it? A quick post-mortem, a statement from the witness and a
little paperwork? It seems so straightforward."

"It never is."

Her gaze dropped back to the rug; he waited.

She murmured "He got so quiet, toward the end...I could hear him
whispering things...his wife's name, Ileana's, even mine...then, when
the pain got too much for him, he'd just lie there. Breathing. And at
the end of every exhale, there was this pause, and I thought, that's
it, it's over...then he'd force another breath, and another...I
started counting them. One hundred, two hundred...three hundred...he
fought for every last second. I don't think he even knew that I was
there."

"He knew. You gave him what he needed. He didn't die alone."

"He gave ---me--- something I needed..."

"Yes," Julian said softly. "I understand. In the end, you did face it.
You were there for Gamorr."

"Like I said, I owed it to him."

He went to her, where she sat on a stool, and sank to a crouch next to
her, covering her hands with his. "Come home with me tonight, Nerys.
Miles and Keiko are worried. And it's been a while since you and I
shared a cocoon of hand-embroidered linens--I've been told I make an
excellent hot-water bottle..."

She glanced up at him, then away again, managing a half-smile.
"Thanks, Julian. You three and the children ---are--- the closest thing I
have left to family now. But...I think I need to be alone."

"You always say that," he grumbled disapprovingly. "If you change your
mind..."

"I'll call you."

"Very well, then...if you won't come with me, you should go to your
quarters and get some rest. You've been through a genuine wringer."

"I will." She got up, wiping her cheeks hurriedly as she left the
infirmary.

("Ferengi Love Songs")

"Well done, Chief," Julian grinned as they watched Leeta and Rom below
them on the main level of the promenade, where the latter two were
making known the fact that they had made up. "Or shall I call you
'Cupid'?"

"What can I say?" Miles grinned. "I'm just an incurable romantic."
They chuckled a moment, then Miles turned to Julian, pulled him close
and gave him a slow, soft kiss, comparable to the ones Leeta and Rom
were exchanging.

His eyes wide in surprised delight, Julian smiled. "Well I should say
so. You're not usually so demonstrative in public."

"So let's go home then."

"You mean I'm allowed back in now?"

"That's why I came to get you. Jarvis and Ambron and I are all
through."

"Well thank goodness. Sleeping in the infirmary was getting old. Have
you or Keiko picked the children up yet?"

"They're at the Artinsseks."

"I still find it odd that ours was the only set of quarters you had to
rip up the floor in to make those adjustments..."

"We're just lucky, I guess. Let's call the Artinsseks after a
bit--there's something I want to show you at home, first."

Julian grinned lasciviously at him. "I'd wager I've seen it, but by
all means..." He draped an arm from Miles's shoulders as they started
down the Promenade.

"I don't mean that, David the machine, though I wouldn't slap ye for
trying..."

"Then what exactly ---do--- you mean?"

"S'a surprise."

"Miles. I hate surprises."

"You'll like this one. It was actually Keiko's idea, something she's
been talking about for a while now. I only wish I'd got off my
gleaming white Irish behind and done it while she and Nerys were still
pregnant."

"All right, fine, I'm even more curious now."

They got in; Julian glanced around the front room looking for signs of
structural upheaval, but everything seemed to be in order. "You
cleaned up thoroughly, I see. I could have helped you."

"Wasn't necessary. I think I pulled something in my shoulder again,
though, while we were working; would you take a look at it?"

"Of course. Is my kit still in the back bathroom?"

"I think so."

Julian headed back for the kit while Miles turned to the replicator.
The bathroom door whooshed open; Julian stopped dead for a second,
then turned around and went back to the front room.

Miles was leaning against the wall by the replicator holding a mug of
coffee, looking insufferably pleased with himself. Julian stopped
about five centimeters from him. "Miles."

"Yes, Julian?"

"There is a marble tub the size of an Olympic swimming pool, with
massage jets, sunk half into the floor in the back bathroom."

"That's so, Julian."

"And there's what looks like a thermal hood in the ceiling."

"Indeed there is."

"You never needed access to the conduits under the deckplates in here,
did you?"

"No, Julian."

"Did you by any chance divert the technology compatibility adapter
parts, and everything else you'd have needed to install that thing,
from that shipment of luxury goods that went missing from Quark's
storage?"

"Yes, Julian."

"He's going to be apoplectic when he finds out. Not that there's
anything he can do. He needs you too badly."

"That's right, Julian."

"Thank you, Miles."

"You're welcome, Julian."

"There are times," Julian considered as he stepped up against Miles
and slid his arms around the other man's waist, "when I am almost
overwhelmed by how convenient it is to be married to the station's
chief engineer."

"It's so nice to be appreciated," Miles replied with an answering
smile as he set his mug on the replicator shelf and responded to
Julian's advances in kind.

---------

"Julian--here, that's right, like that--"

"Kei...my God--Miles, closer, ---yes-----"

Keiko whimpered something inarticulate, her body flexing between them
demandingly; Miles moaned steadily, Julian was seeing stars--his teeth
closed on Miles's arm--

"Da Mile!"

Julian abruptly managed to focus on a sound outside of his
immediate--extremely immediate--environs, and realized someone was
messing with the bathroom door lock plate. "What the--"

"Hey, guys," Molly yelled through the door. "Chairiste thinks you're
drowning! Are you?"

"Droooown!" wailed a tiny but piercing falsetto brogue. "Da Mile!"

"Molly! Don't open that--oh damn it--" Julian redoubled his hold on
Miles and Keiko, threw his weight, and, as a unit--they really didn't
have much choice about that as things stood--they toppled from
not-quite-full view up near the tub's edge into the deep swirling
jet-propelled water, with a result not unlike a block of dry ice
falling into a vat of champagne.

"Bloody damn blasted worthless soundproofing--" Miles expostulated as
he tried to get Keiko's head above the air-bubble-opaqued water
without either putting his own under it or causing any of them painful
and embarrassing, if temporary, injury.

"Molly, don't! We're fi--hi, sweetie." Julian sighed.

"Where's Mom!?" Molly said in consternation from the doorway, holding
Chairiste's hand and trying to see through the steam.

"She's right--" Julian's eyes bugged slightly and Keiko's head erupted
from the depths at that moment, shining and black as a seal's as she
blew water and gasped. "--here," Julian finished weakly, managing not
to wince. Not that he didn't understand. She hadn't even had a chance
to grab a breath.

"Julian, what the hell!" Keiko yelled. "Is this some new method of
prolon--"

"Company," Miles hissed at her, helping her get out from under the
blanket of sopping hair that entirely masked her face.

Her eyes focused after a bit of wiping. "Molly?!"

"Uh...Chairiste started yelling that you were drowning, and then you
didn't answer me..."

"Oh for pity's sake, Molly," Keiko groaned, finishing getting upright
in the water as final separation was completed, "you know perfectly
well what we were doing!"

"Um, yeah, I kinda had an idea...but we haven't had that tub long, and
you haven't had much practice in it. Plus Chairiste was going to wake
the babies in another minute."

"What ---else--- could happen...all right...just a minute, I'll come--"

"No," Miles demurred, sighing and hoisting himself out up the set of
steps he was nearest. "I'll go. Fair's fair. I've already had all
kinds of fun this evening thanks to you two."

"Let him," Julian whispered to her. "He's ---got--- to be the reason Molly
knew how to jimmy the lock plate."

"If you're sure..." Keiko said.

Miles said "Of course. Besides, Chairiste goes down fastest for me.
But I ---will--- be back," he promised them, sotto voce. He got into his
robe, went to the door and picked Chairiste up.

"Uh...sorry, everyone," Molly said uncomfortably.

Julian managed a resigned chuckle. "We had the babies, Molly, not you.
This sort of thing happens. Next time, though, maybe you could try
convincing Chairiste that we've all passed our water safety
qualifications?"

"Yeah, I'll do that." She escaped out the door with Miles and
Chairiste.

"A little backfloating practice while we wait for him?" Julian
whispered, easing up behind Keiko and pulling her against him.

She snuggled there a second, then turned in his arms and kissed him,
holding on as they both floated up horizontal in the churning,
relentlessly agitated water. No surprise, what with weight
considerations, she wound up on top of him.

"I could stand some work on my whitewater rafting," she informed him.

"Do I get a lifejacket?"

"Oh hell, let's forget being cute and just ---do--- it, okay? I'm about to
explode!"

"No argument here, let me just grab the edge..."

("Soldiers of the Empire")

Julian came up to the table where Jadzia and Miles sat, sipping from
his tea mug. He sat down next to Miles. "Chief."

"Julian."

Jadzia looked between them for a moment as they pretty much ignored
each other, pictures of a.m. sloth, concentrating on their mugs; she
was apparently looking for signs of either a quarrel or deliberate
casualness for her benefit. She must have concluded there was none
such. She said in her softly-wondering voice "My ---goodness---. You two
are so...---effusive---."

Julian gave her his sidelong smile, eyes half-lidded. "We're tired,"
he said simply.

"---Very--- tired," Miles contributed.

Jadzia was quiet, then grinned slowly in comprehension. "I see," she
said. "You ---have--- had a lot of extra work lately, Chief...like those
repairs and modifications you've been doing in your quarters...?"

"Mmmm...maybe that's it," Julian allowed. Miles snickered.

Jadzia gave them her you-naughty-creatures-but-I-love-you expression.
"How's Keiko?"

"Pretty much like us. Half-asleep and grinning," Miles said, having
another swallow from his mug. "Julian, you can thank the Commander,
partly, for the surprise. She got the news of that shipment of luxury
goods out of Quark, and shared the specifics with Keiko."

"Just practicing my information-gathering skills," she said demurely.
"I need to bring a little more authenticity to Lady Wantsomore. Or
Falcon, whoever I'm doing next. Oh, I've already had Garak fit me for
a black leather jacket and slacks. I've already got the boots. Can I
borrow your eyepatch, Chief?"

Julian glanced at the near entrance. "Heads up. Here comes Nerys,
looking positively apologetic."

Nerys came up and sat down between Miles and Jadzia, holding a padd.
"Revised duty roster," she informed them in a voice like doom. "Read
it and weep." She set the padd down; Miles picked it up.

"'Small arms recalibration'?" he read disbelievingly. "Does that mean
all the small arms on the station?"

Kira sighed "Afraid so. And I need an experienced combat officer to do
it. Worf has already set up the parameters; all you need to do is just
make sure it gets done."

Miles was handing the padd to Julian, who gaped "I'm the new
---intelligence--- officer?"

Miles guffawed as Jadzia snickered.

Nerys explained, with a sympathetic half-smile, "It has to be a
command-level officer with a level four security clearance--that means
either you or Dax, and I need her to take over as Fleet liaison
officer."

"Beats retuning phaser rifles," Miles pointed out to Julian.

"Well," Julian grumped, "I hope Worf's enjoying himself while we're
all stuck here taking over his duties."

"Julian, have you ever been on a Klingon ship?" Jadzia asked, with a
raised eyebrow. "If you think the Defiant is cramped and
uncomfortable, try spending a week on a Bird of Prey. Worf isn't
exactly taking a luxury cruise."

Conspiratorially, Miles added "Serving on a Klingon ship is like being
with a gang of ancient sea pirates. You advance in rank by killing the
people above you--so everywhere you turn, you're surrounded by
potential assassins."

"Well, that's crazy," Kira opined, "how could a ship function like
that?"

"It's not quite that chaotic," Jadzia hastened to correct them. "The
social and military hierarchy of a Klingon vessel is very strictly
enforced--a subordinate can only challenge a direct superior, and then
only under certain conditions."

"What sort of conditions?" Julian asked.

"Dereliction of duty...dishonorable conduct--cowardice--"

"Cowardice? A Klingon?" Miles scoffed.

"It's been known to happen," Jadzia admitted. "The Klingons are as
diverse a people as any. Some of them are strong, and some of them are
weak."

"I'd say those two," Julian opined as two large and feral-looking
Klingons entered the establishment warily, "definitely fall into the
'strong' category."

As they watched the two vanish toward the back of Quark's, Odo faded
through the door and over toward Kira, his eyes also trained on the
Klingons' departure point.

Kira murmured to him "Trouble?"

"Not as yet," Odo mused.

"I can see why they caught your attention," she said.

"Are they off Martok's new ship?" Miles asked.

"Just docked," Odo nodded.

"They seem quiet enough," Miles observed.

"For the moment," Odo agreed provisionally, "maybe. Did you see the
one on the left, wearing the necklace?"

"Yes," Julian said.

"Those were neck bones. Cardassian neck bones."

Jadzia frowned.

---------

"What do you suppose ---she--- was thinking?" Miles wondered.

"I don't want to know," Julian sighed. "I just hope we see her again
someday after whatever it is she's planning. God. Buried in extra
duty, and now there's likely to be riots as well. I'll have to pull
people in on their off shifts."

"And me overseeing the spreading of the guts of all the small arms on
the station across the deckplates," Miles agreed. "Perfect time for
riots. You'd better give Garak a call, Julian. Tell him to lie low for
a while."

"I plan on it, though I think it's a good bet he already knows about
this." ---------

Julian ascended to Ops on the lift, eyes focused on a padd he wasn't
really seeing.

Miles came up the stairs on his way back to his station. "How's the
intelligence business?"

"Oh, I can't talk about it," Julian said, walking with him. "All I can
do is read these fascinating reports, and analyses, and analyses of
analyses, and then keep it all to myself because no one else has a
'need to know', so I have to walk around the station feeling like
I...you don't really care, do you?"

"No, but feel free to natter at me about it later tonight." He raised
his voice, speaking to Kira. "A vessel's decloaking fifteen kilometers
off the station. It's the Rotaran."

"Martok's ship?" Nerys responded, looking up.

"Yes, sir. There's an incoming transmission."

"On screen."

Martok appeared, backed by a crowd of Klingons.

"Major," he said, in his fairly-pleasant-for-a-Klingon voice. "We have
just rescued thirty-five survivors of a disabled Klingon battle
cruiser. Request permission to beam them directly to your infirmary."

Before Kira's "Permission granted" could reach his ears, Julian was in
the lift and halfway gone. He never did get the chance to natter at
Miles that night, or at anybody else.

("Children of Time")

"Damn it, Odo! I said I needed to think!"

"It's not Odo," Julian said. "It's Miles and me."

Nerys sighed and sat up on the bunk again. "Come."

The door slid open and the two of them wedged in. Typically, Julian
stepped forward to her side to sit on his heels on the floor near the
bunk, while Miles hung back, unsure at first. She almost smiled. 'I
wonder if I'd have volunteered to take Yoshi if I'd known I'd wind up
with gruff-but-lovable brother Miles and annoying little brat brother
Julian...'

"Odo told Miles what happened with him and the future Odo," Julian
said. "He said, because Miles and I were so adamant about wanting to
go back home, and even if it was largely for the children and Keiko,
it was at least partly for you...and we're..."

"...my only family, that were involved," Kira said, and nodded
tiredly, staring at the floor. "Did he tell you ---everything---?"

"If you mean," Miles said, "do we know he's in love with you, we do.
He didn't tell us, though."

Kira looked up at Miles.

"We've known it for a while," Miles admitted. "Keiko spotted it quite
some time ago. Never said anything to anyone, wasn't any of her
business...but then you became much more our business, and, well...we
---are--- her husbands..."

"It's all right, Chief," Kira sighed. "People shouldn't have to
apologize for telling what they know to their own spouses. Are you two
just here to pat me on the head? Because if you are, thanks, but--"

"Not ---just--- that," Julian admitted. "I ---would--- like to scan you and
determine the rate of neural degradation, but that can wait. For one
night. No more. But right now, we wanted you to know that even if
there had been Bashirs or O'Briens living down there, we still would
have insisted on returning to the station, for your sake. We know you
don't agree, and that's fine. Major, we love you too--maybe not the
way Odo does--"

Kira did something she'd had the impulse to do occasionally before,
but never had; she reached over and gently rumpled Julian's hair.
'Face it, when he ---is--- endearing, he's a truckload of endearing.' "I
know you do. I love you all, too. But honestly, if you ---did--- have
descendants on that planet, I think you'd have come to see it my way.
Not that it mattered, as it turns out..."

"No. Nerys, I honestly believe--so does Miles--that the path of your
life has a good many years left to stretch. You and Edon weren't meant
to separate because you were supposed to die; you and he simply
weren't compatible for all your lives. And there's Odo, and the
children--they shouldn't grow up never knowing their aunt Nerys.
Especially not Yoshi."

"But!" she interjected. "Keiko and the children ---could--- have gone on
without us all, and these people were--"

"Gone on, perhaps. But think what a horrific blow it would have been.
Do you think they'd ever really recover from a loss that severe? All
three of us gone?"

Kira was quiet a while, then said "Do you think that knowing that,
being so aware of it...is why neither of you ever had children? In the
future."

Miles and Julian exchanged a glance. "We've talked about that," Miles
said. "According to Dax--the future Dax, I mean--Julian and I never
considered ourselves anything other than married until I died, despite
lacking Keiko, and Julian never married after that. We think it's
partly grief over Keiko and the children, and you, but also..."

Julian added "It's entirely possible that none of the women aboard
could deal with the concept of being married to ---both--- of us--they
might have been drawn to one or the other of us, but the fact that we
came as a set...well, think about it. How many people could manage to
fall in love with any other two people as disparate as Miles and I
are? Love, perhaps, as you do, but not marriage...and as Miles said,
it's possible that under those circumstances, neither he nor I had the
heart to simply...have children with someone, need to increase the
gene pool or no."

"Was ---that--- what Dax said?"

Miles said "Not quite. He thought we were just too wound up in each
other, and our shared grief, to stand the thought of trying to develop
an interest in anyone else, or in having more children. Also possible,
I s'pose. Look, we'll leave you to think, we know you've got all hell
on your mind, but we wanted to ask you--would you rather Keiko didn't
know? About your decision to stay."

"Are you going to tell her about your decision not to? To go back to
the station?"

"We have to," Julian shrugged. "And knowing Keiko, it's impossible to
tell which choice would upset her more...she'd probably feel like you
do on the subject of eight thousand lives, versus one life and
forty-eight people who never see home again. But there's also our
children to consider...we can't say what she'd think. ---She--- likely
couldn't say what she'd think, at once."

"Let me talk to her," Kira said finally. "I wouldn't feel right not
telling her. She'll only ask me, anyway, if I don't tell her first. I
guess maybe that was what you were really asking? Whether I wanted you
to tell her or do it myself?"

"I suppose that's it," Julian murmured.

"Well," Kira continued, "you're right, she's probably going to feel
just as torn, and just as worried she's being selfish in her opinions
about it, as all of us were."

"Miles and I weren't," Julian said softly. "Oh, it wasn't an easy call
to make by any stretch of the imagination...but we still believe
leaving would have been the right thing to do."

"You two are sort of unique. Separately, you're oil and water, but
when you do click, you get nearly as psychic as Keiko. Look, I
appreciate this...especially after that crack I made. The one about
how you two should be even more willing to stay than everyone else,
since you had each other here..."

Miles shrugged. "I've been called selfish for my family's sake
before."

"Not by someone who's sort of ---in--- your family, someone you were being
selfish for the sake ---of---, I'll bet."

"Nerys, you and I have called each other every name in the book. If
you ever completely stopped stating me your opinion of my behavior in
the universal language of the royally hacked, I'd have Julian on you
with a medscanner." He came over, leaned down and hugged her, gave
Julian a hand to his feet, and waited while Julian put an arm over her
shoulders and squeezed.

"We'll see you at breakfast," Julian said.

She nodded. "See you then, unless..."

"Oh," Miles said quickly. "Right. We'll check if you're with him."

She nodded again, and they left. She pulled her boots off, lay back on
the bed and, despite her assertions of needing to think, did her best
to keep her mind as blank as possible. Part of her was thinking that
she could use one of Miles's bone-crusher massages right about now...

Nah. She'd live.

("Blaze of Glory")

"---Totally--- naked?"

"That's what Nerys said," Julian confirmed, swinging Yoshi like a
pendulum, which was sometimes the only thing that would calm the baby
down. "Molly, Hana's going to blow up if you keep stuffing those beets
down her."

"Deal with your own damn baby over there."

"Hana ---is--- my own da--Molllyyyy..."

"Okay, okay. I'll get her into the sink." Molly hoisted Hana and
vanished toward the front bathroom.

"You know," Julian said, "perhaps we shouldn't swear in front of her
quite so much..."

Miles chuckled. "Who's we? You've got a mouth like a Franciscan friar.
Besides, I've never heard her swear around anyone but us."

"Da Mile? Up'eem!" Chairiste braced herself on Miles's knee and jumped
up and down.

"Right, little sis, come on up..." Miles helped Chairiste into his lap
and tried to keep her from appropriating his comm badge. (She liked to
make it chirp.)

"But how can a child Molly's age have such selective discretion?"
Keiko said wonderingly.

"She's ---our--- child," Miles explained reasonably. "She's Molly. Eek,
can you just imagine Morn naked?"

"I'd rather not," Julian said, making a face.

"Me neither," Keiko agreed. "I hope Nerys recovers from the
experience."

"She worked out her trauma by browbeating an answer out of Quark,
about what it was he'd said to send Morn over the edge like that,"
Julian assured her.

"What was his answer?"

"Apparently, he casually mentioned to Morn that there are missiles
headed for Cardassia, sure to inspire a Dominion counterstrike that
will leave none of us alive."

"Do you believe that?" Keiko wondered.

"I believe that there is a healthy margin of events between the
possibility of invisible missiles striking Cardassia and the death of
everyone on the station. The Captain is being oddly secretive about
the situation, though he hasn't taken any of the precautions he would
have if disaster really might be imminent. In any case, if we want to
know more, we'll probably have to ask Nerys, but I won't guarantee
she'll answer."

"Do you think we should send the children to Bajor?" Keiko fretted.

"Not yet," Miles said. "He's right. That'd be premature."

"How's Morn?" Keiko asked.

"Resting comfortably on board his ship," Julian smiled. "I sedated
him."

"Water's ready, Dad!" Molly yelled. "Bring Yoshi!"

"Coming, sweetie," Julian said, and with a final swing lifted Yoshi to
his shoulder and proceeded to where Molly and Hana were waiting.

("Empok Nor")

"If I ---had--- killed him, Doctor..."

"Garak..." Julian clasped Garak's wrist lightly as they strolled down
the upper level of the Promenade, and squeezed. "It wasn't you. We all
know that. And he'd have killed you, too. It was only luck he didn't."

"He, however, is your husband, whereas I--"

"--you are not, yes, I know, and if you mean that losing you wouldn't
have been the blow that losing him would--"

"--and it ---is--- true that if he hadn't tricked me, your children would
be short one father at this point in--"

"Garak, are you ---trying--- to upset me?" Julian released Garak and
paused briefly to face him.

"Never, my dear Julian." Garak touched his arm to indicate they should
continue on as he added "I'm merely trying to ascertain whether your
calm over this matter is the result of professional detachment and
self-control, or a genuine belief that there was no fault to be found,
save that of the inventor of the biogenic compound in question. As you
know, I do not particularly care for...grudging companionship."

"Garak, Miles has forgiven you himself. For that matter, I don't think
he ever blamed you, willing as he was to kill you to save himself and
Nog. He was simply doing what had to be done. I think there's more on
your mind than you're saying." They paused on their route, and Julian
leaned against a port. The wormhole opened, and he watched it idly a
moment, then looked back at Garak.

"Why does there need to be anything more to my attitude, Doctor? After
all, I was locked in a full-scale death-struggle with the man--and the
first thing you said to me, after releasing me from the infirmary,
involved an arts seminar featuring a panel discussion of Plutarch. I
do believe there is a question being begged here."

"So do I, but not that one, or not only that one. You've not been
entirely sure where you and I stand to each other ever since I married
Miles, have you?"

"It's true he isn't particularly fond of Cardassians."

"Do you actually believe I'd allow anyone at all to tell me who my
friends are? After everything you and I have been through, can it even
be a possibility in your mind? Neither Miles nor Keiko would try, in
any case; it's not the sort of people they are."

"Believe me--if they thought you'd listen, they ---would--- try."

"But they ---know--- I ---won't---. And it's not as though they hate you.
Keiko's...a little distraught, yes. But she hasn't anything against
your people as a race; you in particular...I don't think she really
knows what to think about you and me. And Miles...well, of late, he's
actually coming to respect you, not that he'd say so. Biogenic
xenophobia and all."

"Very amusing, Doctor."

Julian stood back up away from the port, threaded his arm through
Garak's, and tugged encouragement to continue their slow walk toward
the habitat ring. He noticed when Garak adjusted his own arm
comfortably through Julian's, because it took Garak a moment to
collect himself enough do it.

"Great heavens, Elim. I think I've finally managed to surprise you."

"You first did that some years ago during that unfortunate episode
with the wire, Doctor. Tell me--is this intended as a reassuring
gesture?"

"That depends. Is it working?"

"That depends. Do you mean it honestly?"

"Oh, my dear Elim. That ---would--- be telling."

"I maintain high hopes for you, Doctor..." he paused as Julian
grinned, then continued "Have you noticed that since your marriage,
you've become...considerably more tactilely oriented?"

"There ---is--- something about living with a husband, a wife and four
small children that renders one a bit touchy-feely."

"Not to mention swaddling oneself in a blanket with one's first
officer on the occasional night for several months."

Julian sighed. "Jadzia?"

"Indeed. While I was fitting her in the black leather."

"Nerys will kill us all if that goes all over the station, Garak."

"Really now, Julian. Do I ---look--- like our good science officer? She
probably told me ---because--- she knows how well I keep a secret."

"You've got a point," Julian chuckled.

They were quiet then until they reached Julian's door, where, rather
than letting go, Julian laid his other hand on Garak's arm too and
said "Come in for a moment. The children will have forgotten what you
look like by now."

"Which may be their fondest wish."

"Oh, please. If it's Miles you don't want to see, he won't be in until
later."

"In that case..."

They entered. Miles looked up from where he was feeding Hana. "'Lo,
Julian. Garak."

Garak eyed Julian.

"Hey, I'm sorry, so he's early," Julian whispered with a helpless
gesture, eyes wide.

"The next time you set me up, Doctor, could you try to be a ---little---
more subtle? Such... blatancy is terribly unsophisticated."

"What setup? I just told you--oops." In the bathroom, Molly was
yelling "Da! Chairiste's eating soap by the handful!"

"Damn flavored stuff," Miles muttered, getting up and handing Hana to
Julian, who had hastily approached to take her. "Whose idea was that?"

"Molly's," Julian said. "Remember she couldn't bathe Chairiste because
Chairiste was too worried about getting soap in her mouth?"

"So the solution is edible soap?"

"It's harmless, I checked it myself."

"In small amounts it's maybe harmless, but you're not supposed to
shove a whole container down of it at once," Miles grumped, heading
for the bathroom at a rapid clip. At that moment, Yoshi started
caterwauling in the babies' room.

Julian rolled his eyes and shoved Hana against Garak's chest. "Here,
hold her a moment, where's her bottle--there, coffee table. And watch
out, she'll grab your ridges--she's always going for Worf's, and for
Imachram's beak. Back in a trice." He was out of the room by the time
he got the last of the sentence out.

Garak rolled his eyes and sat down on the sofa with baby and bottle.
"So you appreciate a nicely turned set of ridges, do you, my dear?" he
murmured to the baby, who was indeed staring at him in fascination. He
managed to divert her attention back to the bottle. She seemed
satisfied with it and he settled back to wait for Julian's return. The
child certainly did have Julian's eyes, he noticed, contemplating the
small, pale-golden-brownish face.

But it was Miles who emerged a few moments later, herding two damp
little girls in towels ahead of him. "Dad's in the babies' room, take
her in and then get your own pajamas on, Molly love."

"I'm not tired yet."

"So you'll be awake in your pajamas. Thanks for taking her, sweetie."

"I wanted to take ---Hana---."

"Well, Hana's making friends with Garak right now, apparently. You can
kiss her goodnight when we've put her down."

Molly disappeared, holding Chairiste by the hand, walking slowly so
the toddler could keep up.

Miles came over and held his arms out to Garak. "I heard Yoshi go off.
Thanks for the hand." The speed, however, with which he reappropriated
Hana almost made Garak smirk.

"Not at all," was all he said as he surrendered the baby.

"I'll just take her in; I think she's nearly through with her bottle.
Be right back."

Miles was, in only a moment. "Julian's going to be busy for a bit.
There's a song he sings that none of the children will sleep without,
at least not without a fight or a substitute. Don't know how Maeve and
Da are going to get Chairiste down when she's gone home. Have to send
a recording with her or something."

"That charming Gaelic ditty?"

Miles stared at him. "He singing it for the patients in general now?"

"Not exactly. I heard him humming it yesterday before he released me,
and I asked him what it was."

"Not surprising. It probably runs through his mind half the time by
now. I'm having a single malt. Get you anything? Oh, I know, there's a
bottle Julian's been keeping around for you, where is it in
here...some kind of heavy blue stuff?"

"It's Isatei."

"Sounds Japanese."

"If you say so."

Miles had been messing with the contents of a cabinet and now came
back and handed Garak a glass, taking a sip out of his own.

"Speaking of whom," Garak wondered, "where ---is--- your other spouse?"

"On her way back from Bajor, under a very full head of steam."

"I take it she's not sharing the relaxed attitude you and Julian seem
to have concerning my recent biogenic experience."

"No, not quite. I didn't want to tell her just what had happened, but
Julian convinced me she deserved to know. For a man with a passion for
intrigue, in many and various ways, he just roundly hates secrets
within the family, even when we're only trying to protect each other.
Maybe that's one reason he likes ---you--- so well. Someone he can play
those games with on something like a real level...you know, judging
from what I saw a moment ago, I don't know who's more uncomfortable
right now, you or him."

"I beg your pardon. The Doctor doesn't appear at all distressed, and
I--"

"As he said to Keiko once about my relationship with him, what you two
have is a game he gets a lot out of, and he's got pretty good, if you
hadn't noticed. But this time there's something not between you and
him--to his way of thinking, it's you and me. He's keeping pretty well
shut about it, though he's worried as hell."

Garak was quiet a moment, started to speak again, stopped, and looked
back toward the door Julian had exited by.

"So how long's it been?" Miles asked quietly.

"Excuse me?" Garak looked back at him.

"That you've been carrying such a thing for 'imself in there."

"I don't understand."

"The hell you don't. The whole station has been watching the two of
you flirt for years. You've been friends with him since before I
was--he latched onto you like a puppy on a chew toy the minute he laid
eyes on you. You had him eating out of your hand almost at once--but
you're not like that with him any more. I'm not trying to be
insulting, but...you honest-to-God trust him, I think. You respect him
now."

"To whom are you trying not to be insulting, Chief? There has never
been a time that I did ---not--- respect the Doctor."

"Not like you do now. Everything he's done for you, anybody else would
trust him, and it wouldn't be any shock, but we're talking about you,
here. ---Nothing--- should be enough to make ---you--- trust anyone, but you
do. I think it rattles you."

"I don't know whether to congratulate you on an unusually creative
imagination, or wonder exactly what it is in your glass."

"Fine--it is you I'm talking to, we'll play this your way. Anyhow, I
wanted you to know... ah, bloody. I know it's none of my business. But
I don't want you to drop him just because you don't want to cause him
upheaval at home, not even after this."

"Did...the good Doctor, by any chance..."

"Julian by any chance would bring that overgrown harp of his down on
my head so hard I'd hear bronze strings crashing and see stars for the
rest of my life if he knew I was talking to you like this. He'd
forgive me, o'course, but it'd be one body-slam later."

"Hm." Garak considered. "And what next, Chief, were I to confirm your
suspicions? Would you maintain this...equanimitous viewpoint if you
received actual verification that your beliefs were correct?"

"Hypothetically, you mean?"

"Naturally."

"I wouldn't have much to say beyond join the club. How could I blame
you, for Erin's sake? I ---married--- the scrawny blighter. Keiko and I
don't lose sleep over you two making those eyes at each other and
whatnot. Not anymore, we don't, at least. He knows you two are
flirting, but he doesn't know...that you might consider it,
hypothetically, to be something else, too."

"I know what it is, Chief. And that it ---never--- will be anything else."
Miles blinked, more than surprised that Garak had said so much. 'He
must really feel like hell about what just happened,' Miles surmised.

The ex-spy continued "Despite my recent display of uncontrol, in
ordinary circumstances, I am a man whose emotions obey orders.
Otherwise, I could never have survived so long."

"Look, Garak--I can't believe I'm about to say this. See, I told
myself that, too, once, about him, trying to keep hold of what we
had...and it nearly ---wrecked--- what we had. I know, I know--most of the
time I'm the raving hothead and you're cool as stone, true enough, and
I don't put it past you to be able to do what I couldn't--namely keep
a lid on it and stay friends with him without the hell I went through.
But...maybe there isn't any reason for you to have to."

Garak considered this, taking a sip from his glass, then looked back
up at the Chief. "I'm afraid I don't follow you."

"I almost believe that. This sounds crazy coming from his husband. I'm
not going to tell you how to handle things with him; you know best
what'll work for you, and him. But if you wanted to tell him about
your hypothetical situation...I can say from experience that he'll be
damn big about it, and he won't change the way he is with you."

"At the time you're speaking of, Chief, the Doctor was not married.
Now he is. It is entirely probable he wouldn't feel he had the luxury
to be so...tolerant."

"Yeah he would. Trust me. I ---know--- him, in a way you don't--Julian and
I may like to wrangle, but we've thrown our very souls on the floor in
front of each other a lot more than once. That's not the way you are
with him, so there are things you don't know."

"Such as? If, of course, you truly feel it's appropriate to say
without his knowledge."

"He's always pulling that sort of thing on me; turnabout's fair play.
Anyway, what I mean is...even if Julian--if he felt things for you
past what he's already shown, that wouldn't...make as much of a
difference to us all as you likely think, because...y'see, he never
thought he'd have what he has--Keiko and I and the children, we're the
center of his heart now; he'd never, ---ever--- give it up. And like I
said, I can't tell him who his friends are, and I can't tell you not
to feel like you do."

"Chief." Garak's intense blue gaze was locked to Miles's. "Are you
saying...that were the Doctor and I to--"

"I don't ---know--- what I'm saying. Morrigan, Macha and Badb, maybe I
just sympathize with you because I've been where you are. But don't
mistake it for pity, Garak, and don't take it as advice. All I'm doing
is giving you information, because I don't want to live with the way
the man would be if you dropped him completely. Am I clear?"

"Quite clear. At least...clear enough."

"Clear as you usually are, at any rate."

"You do obfuscate like a master, Chief, though it comes through with
a...much more heartfelt ring, in your case."

"Clumsy like a boar on ice, you mean?"

"I wouldn't put it that way."

"Of ---course--- you wouldn't..." Miles chuckled.

They sipped their respective beverages a moment, the silence broken by
the low sound of Julian's voice in the babies' room.

Garak finally spoke. "Chief...at the beginning of our--physical
altercation, on Empok Nor's promenade..."

"Yeah?" Miles looked up suspiciously.

"You performed a very graceful evasion that should not have been
possible--I thought I had guarded for all maneuvers. I suspect you
could have performed many such if you hadn't been allowing me to land
blows in the interest of drawing me in the direction of your
improvised grenade."

"I fought in the Cardassian wars, Garak. I was, as you were so
stinking bloody fond of pointing out for the whole trip, the hero of
Setlik Three. Among other things, I know a feint-evade-applesplitter
that'd stave in a Cardassian head, thick hide and stronger bones or
not. And no, I wouldn't have had to take so many knocks if I hadn't
been trying to position you on one side of those cargo containers,
with the grenade, and me on the other."

"Indeed? Then why did you bother with the grenade?"

"A few reasons. Nog was watching, for one, and I didn't want him
coming to equate killing with heroism, as he seemed to be doing. Two,
I wasn't sure just exactly how bad my marriage would ultimately suffer
for my bringing back your pulpheaded body for Julian to do the autopsy
on. Third...I didn't want you dead. Not even after what you'd done.
Yeah, I was willing to take the chance on killing you; it wasn't
looking like I had a lot of options...but. You are one dangerous
bastard, Garak. In a straight fight, sure, I could've killed you...or
maybe you would have killed me."

"And with the bomb..."

"It ---would--- definitely take you out of action, and save Nog and me.
And it ---might--- also leave you alive. It was the best shot to get me,
you and Nog all out of there."

"Eminently logical, Chief. You confirm my suppositions about what a
fine military strategist you are."

"Garak, let's not get into that again."

"Of course, of course...in any case, for a man who ---has--- been an
engineer so many years rather than any sort of...fighter, your skills
and coordination are most impressive--they don't seem to have
deteriorated at all."

"As far as footwork and coordination, I play regular racquetball sets
with a genetically engineered tennis champion who has the reach of me.
And fending off boulders in the Colorado River with nothing but a
fiberglass paddle will keep your lead hand up and your eye sharp,
too."

"I see. Would you perhaps show me that manuver? The evasion, I mean."

"After what happened I'm not sure I shouldn't keep it in reserve."

"You needn't show me your entire hand-to-hand Cardie-killing arsenal,
Chief. Only the one evasion."

"You're tempting me right now to show you a few maneuvers, all
right...fine, here, c'mon." Miles stood and moved toward the open area
of the room near the front door, setting his glass down on his way by
the endtable. Garak followed suit.

They faced off and dropped into their own customary defensive
postures, and Miles said "Okay, now watch. This is a close-quarters
manuver, works best when space is limited. What you look for is your
opponent putting his weight behind an upper-body blow, like so, the
way you did. The tricky part is that the middle of the pivot happens
right when the weave bottoms out; your head's down and you can't see.
You've got to have your spot to come out of the pivot, balanced,
already picked out--which means you also have to know where your
opponent's going to be when the pivot's over--and where he's going to
be and which way he's going to be facing ---during--- it, since you have
to come up blind."

"That being the reason the move is most effective if your opponent has
put his weight behind a blow he's throwing while fully upright."

"Right. His options are limited, and he's going to pull up and stop
when you're not where he was expecting you to be, so you know where
he's going to land--probably right where you were before, or a little
past that, if he's slow on the pull-up. Okay, try that swing you used
bef--" Miles cut off and evaded when Garak lunged without warning; the
manuver came off and they circled again, from opposite sides this
time.

"Indeed an effective tactic, Chief. Once more?"

"Right."

Garak lunged and Miles evaded again.

Miles said "Okay, I'm gonna come at you, now. Remember you aren't
gonna be able to see for a split second, so don't try. If you raise
your head too soon it'll likely get knocked, hard, or else you could
lose your balance."

"Thanks for the warning."

Miles lunged; Garak came out of the pivot wide and slightly off
balance.

"Not bad for a first try," Miles admitted. "Again." He swung and they
traded spots again. "Good, right in position. Your footwork's good, by
the way, nice and loose. All right, now I'll show you how to pull off
basically the same move if your opponent comes at you low. Go for a
hard shoulder block to the midsection. Try to trap me at the sides."

Garak did. "How did you manage ---that---?" he asked a second later.

"I've got to admit, I came up with this one, and only my squad second
ever really got the hang of it, but if you're interested..."

"Oh, by all means."

"Okay. You go down like you're going to roll under the block, first--"

"Roll ---under--- a block coming in low?"

"No, just go down like it's what you're going to do. Mostly the
difference here is the depth of the duck; you still pivot away, rather
than roll. Here, step back and watch me a moment." He demonstrated.

"Ah, yes, I see. There's often a sweep with the leg to take the
opponent's feet out from under him at the midpoint of that manuver,
but you..."

"Right, that leg sweep means a length of time your balance is canted
and one hand's on the ground for leverage."

"Whereas you kept your weight entirely on the balls of your feet. A
delicate trick."

"Yeah, the move's only really useful if you're not that interested in
hurting your opponent. Otherwise you'd either stay up, pivot and, as
you came out of the turn, swing at your man with the opposite arm, or
shove him into the wall from behind, if there ---is--- a wall. Or, like
you said, you'd go down and trip him."

"Are you trying to make a point with that explanation, Chief?"

"What point? Okay, come at me low, I'll show you again; then you can
try it."

They circled. Garak came at Miles as though he was aiming to take him
into the wall with a shoulder in his solar plexus; Miles spun under it
and came out of the sharp pivot without even the lightest brush of
contact between them, poised in anticipation of the next attack.

"Very pretty indeed, Chief. My turn?"

"One more...come and get me, Garak." Miles gave him a playful--yet
possibly a little bit dangerous--smile.

Garak returned the expression in kind, then gave the Chief what he'd
asked for, with a vengeance. Just as he did, Miles caught a flash of
motion out of the corner of his eye and they both heard a horrified
yell-- "GARAK!"

They both lost their poise, startled out of balance, and Garak crashed
into Miles like a freight drone, square in the chest, taking them
across an occasional table and into the wall, with the smash of the
deposed tablelamp. Julian was diving for them before they even made it
all the way to the floor. "What the hell are you ---doing---!" Julian
threw Garak off Miles with enough of his genetically-engineered
strength to send the breath out of the Cardassian in a grunt.

"Sparring, damn it, Julian!" Miles explained, struggling to his feet.
"I was showing him some evasions and you scared the bloody lights out
of us both! Ugh. You've got a damn solid shoulder block, Garak."

"Why, thank you," Garak replied graciously, managing to get to his
feet. "Oh, my. Doctor, I believe my head made fairly intimate contact
with the wall."

"I'll get the medkit," Julian sighed, slumping in exasperated relief.
"Damn it. Don't ---scare--- me like that, you two! Miles, go see if the
noise woke the children, I'll be right back."

As he was returning to the babies' room, Garak murmured "You were
right, Chief. He ---is--- a bit on edge, isn't he?"

Miles paused. "Yeah. And, uh...maybe I am, too, a little."

"I must confess to some...new disquiet, as well," Garak muttered, but
so softly Miles wasn't sure he'd heard it.

("In the Cards")

"Julian? Hey, you in there?"

"What?" Julian glanced up from the lab computer screen. "Hello, Miles,
did you hurt yourself again?"

"I can't get into this outfit without you asking me that."

"You never make it out of the river without hurting yourself. If
you're not hurt, why are you bothering me?"

"Bothering you? I'm trying to rescue you. You've been in front of that
screen since the middle of yesterday, which makes it
what...thirty-eight hours now?"

"Don't be silly. I've had a nap."

"Any food?"

"Not hungry. This is the first chance in months I've had to get any
work done on this project!"

"The prions'll take care of themselves for a few hours. C'mon; the
river's cold as a fluorine relay these days, I ought to check the
programming--"

"Then get out of those wet things before you catch a chill."

"I plan on it, and on having a soak. Come with me. Won't be quite the
same with Keiko gone, but it'll still get us warm."

"Miles--"

"Doctor Bashir!" Nog ran in past Miles. "Oh, hi Chief--how was the
river?"

Miles grinned. "Wild. Thanks again. To Jake, too."

"Not at all!" Nog grinned toothily with his customary overenthusiasm.
He sidled up to Julian and muttered "I've got it! I didn't know if you
wanted me to give it to you here, though."

"You ---have--- him? Where is he?" Julian actually abandoned the computer
board for a moment.

"In my quarters. Should I bring him?"

"Take him to my place. I'll be heading back there in a moment myself.
Wait just a minute, Miles, and I'll come with you--this ---is--- worth a
break," Julian smiled. "Nog, let me put together that anaerobic
metabolized suspended-in hydrosaline solution. How many liters did you
say you needed?"

"Five. Thanks, Doctor!"

---------

"They did?"

"Yes. What do you suppose they're up to?"

"No telling. Jake's behind it, though, I'll guarantee you. Nog's too
worried about screwing up his Academy record to go leaping into any
sort of shenanigans on his own. How's here?"

"No, no...I should probably put him in a closet...the children will be
after him..."

Miles took Kukalaka off the bedroom shelf he'd just set him on and
turned around. "You want him where you can see him, not stuck in the
closet. When the kids are back, whenever that turns out to be, we'll
find him a spot out of their reach. Here, let's have him on the bed,
he'll be comfy there." Miles positioned the bear on Julian's customary
pillow. "Why didn't you just ask Leeta for him?"

"Felt foolish. She likes him so well, and I ---am--- a grown man...well. I
imagine she'll get by without him. Go ahead and start the water; I've
got some calls to make."

Miles got in the water while it was still pouring in and turned on the
jets, wincing as they began beating the soreness out of his
river-wrenched body.

"I saw that look. You ---have--- strained your shoulder again, haven't
you?"

"No--well, no more than I've strained everything else." Miles opened
his eyes; Julian, already stripped, was setting something down on the
floor next to the voluminous tub. "What's that?"

"Muscle relaxant." Julian made what appeared to be pouring motions and
came around the tub wall to hand Miles a glass. "How hot did you set
it?"

"It shouldn't turn us into soup. No burns past first degree."

"Good. If I fall asleep, drag me out."

"No problem."

Julian stepped up the near stairs and then back down into the tub.
"I'll admit my attention ---was--- starting to wander a bit. Perhaps
another short nap when we get out...oh, don't look that way. I have to
take advantage of this window of the children being gone and the
Dominion situation not having evolved any farther--when things do heat
up in this sector, none of us will have time for pet projects. And
there likely isn't much time. Those damn convoys are still coming
through the wormhole, and the Dominion military buildup is--"

"All right, all right. Just watch out for yourself...Julian, why are
there three glasses?"

"I've asked Garak to join us."

"---WHAT---?"

"It's all right, we needn't get up, I've told him just to bypass the
lock and come in."

"Julian!"

"What's wrong?" Julian's glowing, dark-honey eyes gazed guilelessly at
him through the thickening steam. "Computer, lights down; floor
lights, half. Miles, I've asked you already if you have any problem
with my having him here. You know how cold the station is to him--the
heat's good for his metabolism, and the moisture for his skin, at
least in occasional doses. He's been feeling torporous lately, poor
fellow."

Miles growled dangerously.

"Oh. It's ---your--- being here too, isn't it? I can ask him if it's all
right to postpone..." Julian trailed off, waiting. He took a sip of
his drink, knowing that if he smiled so much as an iota Miles was
going to drown him and stuff him down the pipes. They locked gazes in
separate bids to wait each other out.

"Bloody," Miles finally sighed. "What the hell. If it makes you happy.
But you owe me one. A big one."

"That's the spirit, Miles my love."

"Don't call me that while he's here."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

---------

"So how ---is--- your prion project coming, Doctor?"

Julian ducked himself briefly in the turbulent, air-bubble opaqued
water, and re-emerged smoothing his hair back from his forehead. His
skin was taking on a deeper flush beneath the fair golden-ash-brown in
the dim floor lights. "Hard to say at this point, I was quite close to
some significant results three months ago, but I've hardly been able
to look at things between then and now. How's business at your end?"

"Busy. Captain Sisko has me literally buried in navigational charts. I
almost find myself regretting having volunteered my services." He took
a sip from his glass. "I must say, Doctor, it's terribly civilized of
you to maintain such a...convivial atmosphere in the face of such dire
circumstances."

"You ---are--- ever on at me to be more sophisticated."

"Why do people always equate civilization with plumbing?" Miles
wondered.

"Perhaps because it's so much easier to feel civilized under hygienic
conditions," Garak pointed out. "I do appreciate this invitation,
Doctor. This is the first time I've felt warm in months."

"Miles, can't you do something about the environmental settings in his
quarters?" Julian wondered.

"They acting up on you again?" Miles asked Garak.

"I'm afraid so."

"Maybe you should think about moving," Miles mused. "The programming
circuits in your quarters obviously won't put up with being that far
out of synch with the neighboring environments."

"I had been giving that some thought, actually."

"Hey, maybe you could move in with Ziyal," Miles came up with. "She
likes it about as warm as a full Cardassian would, I remember having
to adjust the--"

"---That--- would be unwise for a number of reasons, Chief," Garak
demurred, and Julian chimed in with "Really, Miles, Nerys would take
off his head and both legs."

"S'pose that's true."

"In any case, it would hardly be proper," Garak continued. "A child
her age?"

"A child her age with a massive crush on you," Julian noted. "That's
true, too."

"Indeed. I care very much for Ziyal, but it would be unkind of me, to
say the least, to initiate a situation like that in view of her
feelings."

"Ziyal's got a thing for you?" Miles wondered, eyebrows rising.
"Thought you two were just friends."

"We are," Garak confirmed. "I'm afraid that's all we can be, under the
many and various circumstances...even as charming a creature as she
can be."

"Well, there's no shortage of empty quarters on the station at the
moment, what with the mass exodus," Miles said. He noticed that Julian
was apparently right--while the two humans were getting progressively
more relaxed, Garak seemed to be growing more animated, his eyes
brighter and his voice more clear and clipped. And rather than turning
darker blue, as the humans were pink, his skin seemed to be getting
paler and more even-toned. 'Guess I do know what it's like to be cold
for too long, at that,' Miles thought. Not that he was making plans
for a thrice-weekly soak with Garak, for God's sake, but at least
there weren't necessarily any ulterior motives involved here.
Necessarily.

"You ---are--- looking chipper, aren't you, Elim? We don't want you
overcharging your system too quickly, though, as externally regulated
as your temperature is..." Julian floated off the cushioned bench he
was on and over to Garak, lifting both hands from the water and
setting his fingers against the Cardassian's neck. Miles doubted that
Julian noticed the way Garak's eyes widened.

"Where ---has--- your pulse got to, we've been in long enough that my
own's up so much, it's hard to--ah, there. Heavens, it's pounding. Not
dangerously, I'd say, but your metabolism is quite enjoying the
heat--I'm going to get you a dose of the supplements I've been telling
you you should take; the systemic elevations you're experiencing will
be ideal for dispersal." Julian braced his hands on the tub's edge and
surged upward with a wave and a splash, swung his water-slick person
over the side and hopped down, pausing a moment on the tile to stretch
and shake a shower of glinting droplets from his hair. He grabbed a
towel on his way out, wiping perfunctorily at his dripping anatomy.

Garak set his glass down and sank under the water. Miles waited
sympathetically. The older man was back up a second later, thick black
hair streaming, with a hand over his eyes. He sighed.

"How you holding up, there, Garak?"

"Adequately."

"You didn't ---have--- to tell him yes..."

"I'm afraid I was a bit shortsighted. I didn't think my reaction to
the heat would be so...invigorating."

"The water's heat or his?"

"It seems to be a combination of the two."

"You'll be wanting me to get him out of here before you get out of the
water?"

"Please. And don't let him turn the jets off."

"No problem."

"I hope you aren't enjoying this ---too--- much, Chief. It would be so
puerile."

"On the contrary. He can be bloody damned oblivious, can't he?"

"I would say 'you have no idea', but I'm aware that you do. "

"Aye, it's--" he broke off.

"Here we are, Elim." Julian emerged through the steam, skin gleaming,
the slide and flex of his heat-relaxed muscles almost catlike. He
settled on the steps next to Garak, laid one hand on the other man's
cheek and gently turned his head in order to reach the carotid past
the neck ridge. "Hold still now," he murmured. "And...there we are."
He went and set the hypo on the counter and came back, slipping into
the water between Garak and Miles, ducking his head once, and coming
back up moving toward the spot he'd been in before. "You know, Garak,
this thing has a thermal hood. It can be set for dry heat, too."

"I'll...keep that in mind."

"Oh, I've just had a thought--Elim, until we can get you into quarters
with a less temperamental environmental computer, why don't you stay
here? Then you could use the tub whenever you liked, and Miles, we can
reset the temperature in Nerys's old room, can't we?"

"Um..."

"Doctor," Garak cut in quickly, "that's very generous of you, but I
wouldn't dream of intruding on--"

"Oh, it's no trouble, it's not as though we don't have the space. The
place purely echoes with Keiko and the children gone. It wouldn't be
for long, of course, you'll want to get quarters where you can adjust
the entire place to a more congenial environment for your physiology,
but in the meantime, this would certainly be better than where you
are. Miles, is there some problem readjusting the heat in the spare
room?"

"What? Oh, no--nothing wrong with the programming circuitry 'round
---here---, Gods know."

"Of course there wouldn't be--you live here. In any case, I can speak
to Nerys, see how soon she can arrange something for you, Garak. In
fact, I think I'll get on it right now, before I start shriveling
up--you two stay, Miles until you get dizzy, and you--" he pointed at
Garak, "at least another half hour. You both have actual medical need
to be here."

"And you have actual medical need for supper and bed, laddo. Don't be
nipping off to that lab of yours again--see to yourself or I'll come
do it for you."

"I will, when I've spoken with Nerys, Miles, don't fuss so." And he
was out of the water again, by God, and this time he took a moment to
towel himself down, his movements slow and languorous in the
steam-diffused light. "We'll see about the environmentals in the spare
room, and we can have you here tomorrow, Elim." Finally he wrapped the
towel around his waist, its whiteness stark against his flushed skin,
grinning at them both as he headed for the door. "It'll be fun. You'll
see."

There was a silence.

"Looks like you're doomed," Miles remarked.

"I suppose you and I both are; I'm aware of the less than unbridled
joy with which you're greeting this development, Chief. I've always
considered you to be a very lucky man...but it I'm forced to conclude,
from this and other occasions, that your admittedly captivating
husband can be something of a mixed blessing."

"He ---defines--- 'mixed blessing.' I want to kill him half as often as I
want to...well, anyway, this might be a good time to break your
hypothetical news to him. He'd back off this idea if he understood the
situation."

"It's easy for you to recommend that course, Chief. But such
resolution as you found to the matter is quite out of the question in
my case, for more than the obvious reasons."

"Okay, you've a point there. I've said my piece. You'll have to do
what you think's best." Miles sank down in the water and let his head
settle to the rest.

"Chief? Are you...supposed to be that color?"

"What color?"

"You're not quite as red as your blood, but you're getting there."

"S'all right. Pale-skinned humans do that in high heat. Our
capillaries get all huge trying to vent the excess."

"Of course, but so markedly?"

"I'm Irish, all right?"

"Exactly what part of Earth would that be?"

"An island in the northwest quad of the planet, in a cold ocean. Best
place on Earth. Or anywhere else, for that matter."

"I suppose we're all fond of our homes past the point of reason..."

"You must miss yours."

"The knowledge that I cannot see it again ---has--- rendered my
recollections of it in a romanticized color palette, I will admit."

"Well, I sympathize, but it's a good thing for ---us--- you're here."

"It ---is--- nice to feel useful, though one can hardly base an existence
on that."

"Himself makes it easier for you, doesn't he?"

"He does. As much as any non-Cardassian can make it. And so does
Ziyal." He let his own head come into contact with the headrest and
slid down in the water a bit. "They both make it difficult for me to
remember...that sentiment ---is--- the greatest weakness...as I now know
several times over."

"With the importance you people place on family, you should know that
it can be a source of strength, Garak. If you let it." 'I don't
believe this,' Miles thought. 'I'm actually rooting for Garak. For
that matter, I'm sitting naked in a tub with him chatting about home
and family. Julian...some how, some way...'

"For certain people, perhaps it can," Garak partially agreed. "But in
my case it would entail unacceptable risks."

"Whatever, then. It's your show. Good luck with it."

"Thank you, Chief. No matter my course of action, I ---am--- going to need
all the luck I can get."

After turning that comment over in his head for a few minutes, Miles
decided he wasn't entirely sure he liked the sound of it. Oh, nothing
overtly menacing about it, no, but well, this ---was--- Garak...

"Chief."

Miles could barely hear the word.

"Chief, I believe you've overheated. We'd better get you out of here."
Miles felt the water push against him, jostling him off the rest, and
then he was caught by a hand around his bicep and one at his waist. He
blinked.

"Garak! What the--"

"Relax, Chief. I've seen unclothed humans before the Doctor, you
know."

"Aye, and I bet I know where."

"Yes, likely similar circumstances to those in which ---you've--- seen
variously dead and dismembered Cardassians. Clothed or not."

Miles sighed. "All right, whatever." He let Garak steady him as he
climbed the steps and then descended to the tiles surrounding the tub.
Garak handed him a towel. Miles muttered "And it's not the seeing that
bothers me so much anyway."

"I assure you, Chief, our contact of the moment is strictly
utilitarian."

"I know that. That's not what I meant."

"Dizziness leaves you feeling vulnerable?"

"Oh leave off, can't you? Get back in the tub, your doctor-ordered
half-hour's not over."

---------

"Why are you editing yourself out, Doctor?"

Julian had just felt the wash of warmer air that signaled Garak
leaving his room; he glanced away from the holo controls a second,
over his shoulder to where Garak was standing. "That's not me," he
muttered, then went back to what he was doing.

"Ah. I take it then that these recordings were made during our stay
with the Dominion?"

"Most of them before you got there. You know, Garak, if anybody were
to be able to realize that the changeling wasn't me, I would think
you'd have. That sort of thing is right up your alley."

"I should have, when the creature was waiting for me in the runabout
with a phaser and a flimsy excuse for being there; you've never acted
quite that emphatically on your suspicions of me. Still...it was an
almost unbelievable resemblance."

Julian stabbed the control again. "Can you think of a way I can keep
this shot of Molly and Hana without that not-me involved?"

"Let me try." Garak reached for the control, which Julian gave him.
"May I ask why you chose to work on this in the middle of the night?"

"Just couldn't sleep. Miles and I are always hauling these things out
when Keiko and the children are gone, but this stretch we can't bear
to look at."

"Of course...up to what date should I effect the changes?"

"The day we got back is close enough, they didn't make any recordings
for a few days before that." There was a quiet stretch while Garak
worked with the control; Julian ran his hands contemplatively up and
down his bare arms and considered getting up to put something more on.
The temperature in most of the place, by Julian's decree, was a
compromise between what Garak found comfortable and what the British
Isles-born Miles and Julian did. Garak's room was, in Miles's words,
"ungodly stifling"; the master bedroom's temperature was set lower
than the rest of the house. As a result, Garak would put on something
fairly warm before leaving his bedroom, and Julian would take off most
of his clothes before leaving his own. Miles was staying in the
bedroom a lot while he was home, to nobody's surprise, but when he
wasn't, he usually just removed the outer layers of his uniform.

"I do envy you and the Chief," Garak mused while he worked. "As you
know, now, I was not born to a situation that involved much direct
connection with family..."

"I'll say. Your own father bloody regretted not having killed your
mother...sorry, I did promise not to make judgements."

"Quite so. And in the profession I entered, it's considered poor form
to deliberately develop close ties."

"I suppose that sort of thing is seen as a liability in every
intelligence organization. Well, Elim, times like this you can be
grateful you don't have a family. We could keep them here and worry
about them, or we could send them away, and miss them...and ---still---
worry about them."

"Part of the territory, I'm informed."

"Yes, I suppose it is...besides, I'm sure Keiko and Molly are far more
worried about Miles and I here, while they're all staying with Maeve
and Michael."

"And how is the elder Mrs. O'Brien?"

"She's on her feet, still moving slowly, though." He sighed.

"Earth ---is--- the best place for them, Doctor..."

"The best place for all of us. Too bad we can't all go with them."

"That isn't why you joined Starfleet, is it?"

"I didn't expect ever to have a family when I entered the Academy."
Julian ran a hand over his face and let it fall back to the couch.
"I'm sorry, Garak, I suppose it's just this damn waiting getting to
me, like it is to all of us..."

"Let me record these edits...and there you have it. Changeling-free.
Except the one shot featuring the Constable, that is."

Julian took the control, shaking his head. "It's hard to believe that
even ---Odo--- couldn't see..."

"You're still having a great deal of difficulty with that whole
episode, aren't you?"

"How could you tell?" Julian grumped. "You needn't waste time
listening to my post-midnight maunderings, Elim--but thanks for the
help with the recordings."

"You're quite welcome, and I can't sleep, either, so unless you'd
prefer to be alone..."

"Not at all. Game of Khal'to?"

"I'm afraid Vulcan Cotra is beyond my capacities right at the moment.
I was wondering...might we have a few words from Luchtigern?"

Julian blinked. "Oh, of course. How very apropos. Let me get her." He
was back in a moment with the harp; Garak helped him get it to the
sofa. "Did you know," Julian asked, "that 'harp-bearer' was an
official functionary designation in some courts? Outside of court,
too, in some cases."

"Then most such harps are this heavy?"

"Not lap-harps, usually, but floor-harps were."

"Well, then--at least I can feel I serve a purpose around here."

"You don't ---need--- to serve a practical ---purpose--- here, Garak, you're
my friend. Here, help me get her up...she's had a bit of a knock, I'll
need to check the tuning..." He got arranged with the spine of the
sounding box on his shoulder. "Ow. I'm usually wearing my uniform--or
some heavy shirt, anyway--when I do this, it protects the clavicle..."

"Allow me." Garak pulled his own shirt off, folded it and carefully
tucked it between the sounding box and Julian's collarbone.

"Go put something else on, then, you'll get cold."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem, Doctor." He sat at the
other end of the sofa.

"All right..." Julian finished tuning and said "Tell me what you think
of this one. I don't write music easily without Miles--as I've said,
he knows theory, even if he doesn't play harp. Everything I've tried
to write myself has come out less than traditional; most of it fell by
the wayside."

"Perhaps you define 'tradition' too narrowly. Is there some reason the
Chief didn't contribute to this piece?" "Ahm...soaking myself in
research is only effective to a degree; I needed some additional
diversion, so...here goes nothing." Julian took a breath and began to
play.

After a pause when he finished, Julian looked up at Garak in query.
Garak licked his lips and answered "Quite lovely." He looked briefly
away from Julian, then back, and said in a stronger voice "Odd how you
manage to evoke an almost martial sound from such an instrument. The
Chief would refer to it as...what was the word...'Goltraigh?'"

"It is rather melancholy, isn't it? But not Goltraigh, exactly--not
written with those categories in mind, at least."

"Do you have a title for it?"

"Yes. I called it 'Exile'."

Garak blinked.

Julian smiled, a bit shyly. "Do you like it?"

"I no longer feel qualified to judge. I now have a bias. Unless, that
is, the title is a reference to the state of exile in general, or
refers to the Constable, or--"

"---Why--- would I play you someone else's song?"

"For a critical opinion before presenting it to your intended
recipient?"

"Elim! Of course it's for you. So what do you think?"

"I'm hardly an expert on Terran music, but personally I found
it...complex, evocative, dark, intriguing...perhaps a bit contrary, in
those two melodic lines that almost seemed to fight each other--"

"Good. I did it right, then."

"May I ask what brought on this display of..."

"Sentiment?"

"For lack of a better word. Of course, perhaps I don't need to ask.
You ---have--- written a piece for the Major...perhaps you simply find
your inspiration in the intricacies of sentient existence?"

"Nerys is our clan sister as well as our commanding officer, and we
owe her a massive debt of gratitude. I wrote this for you...because I
still find you as fascinating as I always have." Julian shrugged,
trying to make it look casual, but the harp's contact point slid to
his pectoral and Garak's shirt slipped off, and his collarbone got
bumped when he lowered his shoulders. "Ouch. I mean...this was my way
of trying to express that. I always ---have--- wished that in some wise, I
could be as fascinating to you. Despite however mercenary, or
stubborn, or bone cold you've struck me, in whatever situation.
There's one real secret I had, it applied only to me, and now it's
general knowledge--you know everything about me of any relevance. But
that being the case, I never have understood why, since you disvalue
sentiment so, you've been as...tolerant of me as you have, except when
you're in the mood for a little distraction yourse--"

"No. No--Doctor...Julian." Garak drew in a breath, looking away. He
was quiet for a few moments, and Julian, feeling he'd overstepped a
boundary, was quiet, too.

Finally Garak continued. "Please understand, Doctor, that...over time,
you have become more to me than a repository for my stored
wisdom--more than someone to impress, mystify, whatever word you
choose--and I would certainly like to think that I have become more
than a source of fodder for your tendencies toward intrigue."

"Of course you have, Garak--I just said you were my friend--" he
stopped.

"True," Garak continued, "there are things you have done for me, in
the past, which made me suspect I had more than your curiosity--risks
you have taken, on my behalf--but you have taken similar risks for
people you hardly knew. It's in your nature, both as a would-be
adventurer and as a healer. And we both know that it is unwise to make
assumptions--even as often as you ---still--- do that very thing, you're
aware of the ill-advisedness of it."

"Garak--" Julian started trying to set Luchtigern down, and Garak got
up to assist him.

"It's not making an assumption to believe me when I say I care about
you. All right, the way we usually communicate, I admit ---I'm--- forced
to make a damn good many assumptions, though not nearly as many now as
in the past...but I've always been an open book, to you. It never
occurred to me you wouldn't take what I say to you--about you or
anything else--at face value."

"At one time, I would have--or at least would have been confident in
my ability to fathom your actual meaning and opinion, despite your
attempts to cloud the issue. In fact, I do retain most of that
confidence...except as pertaining to the subject at hand."

"Subject at...you mean how I feel about you? Do you want me to just
blurt it? You usually hate it when I'm so, how do you usually put
it...'unsubtle'. But if it will help...there haven't been many in my
life I was so instinctively drawn to--even if, in the beginning, my
motives were a bit questionable. They aren't now. I love you. 'Plain
and simple'." Julian smiled dryly and touched Garak as he'd been prone
to lately, with a loose clasp around the wrist.

---------

Julian wandered slowly into the main bedroom, letting the door slide
shut behind him; he stood very still for a while, then slowly advanced
into the room and sank onto the bed, where Miles was visible only as
an oblong lump in the bedclothes.

"Miles."

"Mm."

"The most extraordinary thing has just happened."

"Did he only tell you, or did he actually make a pass? Or have you
already been experimenting with interspecies mating rituals?"

Julian blinked, then turned dazed eyes to focus on the dark-shrouded
pile where Miles was. "No, but...how did you..."

"You can blame me."

"What?"

An upheaval disturbed the bedclothes and Miles sat up slowly, pulling
a pillow off his head. "I told him he ought to say something to you.
Well, I didn't put it like that, exactly, but I suppose that's what it
comes to."

"You ---knew---?"

"Julian. ---Molly--- knows. Keiko wonders when the two of you are going to
bloody get on with it."

"Well, that's not as surprising..." Julian swallowed and stared into
space a moment.

"Love you too, pet. You want to tell me about it?" Miles asked
quietly.

"That's...it's why I came in, actually. I played him that piece I've
been writing...I don't think I ever mentioned to you that it's--"

"--for him. I'm not exactly shocked, as nervy as you'd get when anyone
heard you working on it. I like that double melody line, by the way.
Counterpoint from hell, sets my teeth on edge. But you were saying?"

"I played him the piece, and told him the title, and asked what he
thought...to keep it brief, we wound up telling each other--well,
things we haven't said, not outright. So we did, in the half-dark, in
the middle of the night, oddly appropriate for the two of us. I said I
loved him. He said he wished it were true. I asked him to please stop
fencing for once and tell me what the devil he meant, and he...did."

Miles laid a hand on his back. "You're really rocked by this."

Julian nodded.

"I was hoping you'd take it as well as you did with me, when I
first...when you figured it out, with me."

"It's different. I know that ---he--- doesn't mean what you and I both
thought ---you--- meant, when you told me--you and I didn't know how
serious it was going to become for both of us."

"Whereas Garak is as serious as a core breach."

"At least. Miles, knowing who he is...some of the things he's
done--both in the past, and since I've known him--you know, no matter
how many times I've had to go up against him myself--to save ---your---
life, once, and Nerys's and...you see, I knew that he never did
anything, any of it at all, but in the belief that he was doing the
right thing, and that was always enough for me to get past whatever
abominable thing he'd done, or tried to do, or been willing to do. And
he's not the same man he once was, I know that, I know enough about
him to know that to some degree, he's changed. I've ---seen--- many of the
changes happening. But Miles, ---oughtn't--- there to be some things, as a
Fleet officer--and, far more importantly, as a doctor--that I should
never accept under any circumstances? And aren't there things that no
one should ever accept?"

Miles thought a moment, stroking Julian's back. "I know you've seen
examples of some of what he's done being done by others, and you
---didn't--- accept it then, no matter how righteous the people in
question were about it. Garak does seem to be unique to you that way.
But that's just it--you didn't accept those ---things--- even when it
---was--- him. You fought him when you thought he was wrong. It's not him
entire that puts you off. Julian..." Miles slid his arms around
Julian's waist, pulling him gently back to rest against Miles's chest.
"I know I'm waxing all sophistry on you here, in a way, but just for
the sake of argument...if it weren't possible to love someone without
loving everything they do, would you and I be sitting in the same bed
right now?"

Julian groaned softly. "It's not the same thing, you know that."

"Yeah, I know, we're talking matters of degree, here, though, not a
difference of type."

"Even so. You see, I...once I understood what he's just said, and was
faced with the prospect of..."

"Getting a hell of a lot closer to him?"

"Close in ways we've never been, more like. It made me wonder if I
should...should have ---admired--- him so. Been so terribly fascinated, as
I still am...should have let myself be blinded to what he was
---capable--- of by the glamourie of who he was."

"You were damn young, me love."

"But I'm not now. And once I realized, once I knew, just what he'd
been...I suppose the only word for what I did is excuse. I excused
him. I wouldn't have excused anyone else who's done what he has--well,
all right, to some degree, anyone who has truly changed from something
unforgivable deserves some forgiveness, and I'd have at least given
the benefit of the doubt. But Garak hasn't completely changed. He
never will. He's never even tried to lie to me about ---that-----in fact,
he's gone to extraordinary pains to rub my nose in just what a
scurrilous character he can be. I suppose I started excusing him
reflexively, it became a game--his deflowering of my virgin
sensibilities, his trying to outrage me, or scandalize me, to the
point I'd...stop idolizing, perhaps even stop associating with him.
And me, refusing to let that happen."

"You play that game with a lot of people," Miles muttered in his ear,
then kissed the ear.

"I know. But ---you--- aren't by any stretch of the imagination him."

"Could you be a little more specific?"

"I mean game or no, loving you doesn't put me in any kind of
compromising ethical position--in fact it probably makes me look
better than half everything I've ever done--but just being Garak's
friend ---does---."

"At least as far as you see, it does. Now, anyway."

"You don't see that?"

"Julian, maybe I'm slanted, here, because I want you to be happy,
but...Garak told me once that he's a man whose emotions obey orders.
Well, you aren't. You're a loving, sensual, impetuous, ---emotional---
man, you're as responsive to everything that touches you as a
thoroughbred."

"That sounds more like you."

"It's prettier on you, that's all, most things are. But how can you
blame yourself just because your head and your heart aren't seeing
eye-to-eye? We both have good reason to know that it's something that
happens to us all at some point. And Julian...a lot of the quandary
you went through about whether and what you should be doing with me,
and then Keiko and me--how close you should be getting--doesn't apply
with Garak. You may love him, and I think you do, though right now you
aren't sure of it. But is there any question in your mind of having
with him what you have with Keiko and me?"

"God, no. I never meant to imply that. And perhaps that should...I
mean, what will it, whatever I decide, do to ---him---? What's it perhaps
done to him already, all this? What if--if the sort of thing I have
with you and Kei ---is--- what ---he--- wants?"

"You were worried you should be blacklisted by Fleet Medical for
eating lunch with the pitiless amoral bastard, and now you're fretted
about breaking his heart? Garak's old enough to make us both look like
pups, you needn't guard his welfare for him. He's quite literally made
a career out of looking after himself. And I don't think taking your
friendship with him to new territory is going to sink your ethical
boat, in terms of who he is or what he's done, any more than it has
been."

"Maybe it's already sunk, Miles, that's my whole thesis here."

"So tread water. Just quit harping on what amounts to an academic sore
point, will you? You can't change how you feel about him. That's that.
All you can change is what you do about it...but if backing off from
each other isn't going to change the way either of you feels, how will
it help? Isn't that the issue plaguing you? How you can't help feeling
about him, despite yourself? Really, now, and not what you do or don't
do about it?"

Julian was quiet a long moment, then whispered "I suppose it is."

Miles kissed Julian's shoulder. "You may as well stop fighting. It's
in your nature to love, and to forgive."

"And quite obviously in yours, as well. I almost wish you were
outraged. It'd make this far more simple."

"Anything for you, love. Want me to go lay him out and toss him
through an airlock? Then refuse to touch you for a month?"

"I adore you, Miles."

"You always say that like you're doing it instead of slapping me."

"I am, usually, but it's true nonetheless." Julian turned in Miles's
arms and embraced him, rubbing his face on Miles's shoulder.

"When he told you," Miles asked, nuzzling Julian's neck, "what did you
say?"

"What do you think?"

The Chief's head came up. "Oh for--y'said 'I'm flattered' again,
didn't you, y'little--"

"I'm ---sorry---, Miles, I was in shock!"

"Surprised you didn't say it to Keiko."

"I had a lump in my throat when she told me, I couldn't say much of
anything."

"Julian, is he waiting for you? Right at the moment, I mean, not in
the larger sense."

"Not exactly. I'm sure he isn't sleeping any more than I will, but
we're going to absent ourselves from our various projects for an hour
or two in the morning, and talk then."

"At least lie down and rest a while, try to clear your thoughts. Want
a backrub?"

"I'd love it. Thank you. Mm...ow. Yes, there...if you ever get tired
of being an engineer, I can get you a job nearly anywhere as a
physical therapist."

"I'll keep it in mind."

"There's one thing he said, before he told me he...before he told me.
He said "Would you mention to the Chief for me that while I realize he
---can--- afford to be gracious in this instance...I must in any case laud
his generosity of spirit."

"Translated, I guess that's a thank-you."

"From Garak, to you, that's practically a kiss on the lips."

"Speaking of which, did...?"

"Yes, once. I nearly lost my shorts. And I made the mistake of
touching his jaw ridge and he nearly lost his, too. That's when I said
I needed some time to think. I may need more time than I thought,
now...I can't believe you're doing this."

"Rubbing your back?"

"You know what I mean. This is ---Garak--- we're talking about, the man
you've never trusted any farther than you could throw."

"Give me a big enough sling, I could--"

"There was a time before we were married that you wouldn't say hello
to me if I was with him."

"I thought you being friends with him was a radically stupid idea, and
I didn't want to seem as though I was endorsing it. Right, I was being
patronizing. But it was only because I cared about you, and you were
so damn clueless at the time about the depth of the spoilt fertilizer
you could land in, messing about with him. But it's as you say, he
---has--- changed. Granted we may never give over needling each other
about our pasts. I don't much like him and he feels the same about me.
But we can agree on you. And, lately, a few other things as well.
Besides...you're older, and you've always been a little wiser than I
gave you credit for. In some ways, at least, and now...you've got us.
He ---can't--- eat you alive, you'd never be taken so far in, and away
from us."

"He's grateful to you for doing your best to save his life on Empok
Nor. He wouldn't have gone to that much effort in your place, you
know, especially not at that kind of risk to himself."

"I know."

"He didn't tell you, did he?"

"No."

"There's one thing, though..." Julian was quiet a few moments, then
rolled over and took Miles's hands. "You said it's in my nature to
love. But Miles...it's not in my nature to love murderers and
torturers. I mean--well, take you. I have a hundred reasons to love
you. You're a warm, strong, caring, intelligent, honest, talented,
witty, honorable man, with a heart the size of a small planet--"

"I like the way this chat is coming out."

"--that I have so very much in common with--"

"V'you been self-prescribing, love?"

"--and where we ---aren't--- similar, the differences aren't upsetting to
either of us. Annoying, at worst."

"Well, bloody ---damned--- annoying in some cases."

"And you make me ---happy---, Miles, being with you makes me feel ---good---,
not...pressured or confused or on my guard."

"I know we're already married, but I think I may have to propose
again."

"It's not like that with El--Garak. It...it just doesn't make sense.
Certainly I was dazzled at first by the intrigue, but you'd think I'd
be over that by this late date, wouldn't you? Why feel ---this---? Still?
Why love him?"

"Couple of reasons. Like I said, forgiving is in your nature too. Plus
you still find plenty of that intrigue about him, and it fascinates
you no end, always will, most likely. You ---do--- love the mind games,
admit it. Frustrating as they can be to you."

"Mm...perhaps. But that still isn't enough."

"There's one thing maybe hasn't occurred to you because you're not
used to it happening to you so much as you're used to it happening to
other people ---because--- of you. What was the first thing you thought,
that day in the replimat he introduced himself to you? I mean, after
the 'Oh my God it's the Cardassian spy' part."

"I thought...that he wasn't like I'd expected, at all."

"And how not?"

"He was...smooth. Urbane. He made me feel twelve years old. His...the
way he simply ---looked--- at me was enough to make me feel...naked,
peeled through like an onion, and also like I was the only thing alive
or dead that could possibly hold his attention, maybe forever. Some of
the things he said were really quite banal and blatant, but when he
said them they seemed...like a curtain over a treasure, not only a
tired phrase. He touched me--I couldn't see him, he was behind me, he
laid his hands on my shoulders, and I didn't think I'd ever felt
anything so intimate in my life...Miles, what does this have to do
with why I still--"

Miles chuckled. "I'll give him this, he ---is--- smooth. He simply
---charms--- your ---socks--- off, Julian me love, he knows just what humans
respond to. You're like an animal hypnotized by the proverbial
serpent. The man just ---does--- it for you. Which may also be why he
can't get past how he feels for ---you---."

Julian gazed up at him a moment, then let his eyes fall closed and
covered them with one hand. "Oh, dear...please, tell me I'm not that
juvenile?"

Miles lay down with him, gathering him close. Julian rolled to hide
his face in Miles's chest. "You may be a retooled version, but you're
still only human. Notice I never said you'd marry him or anything,
that's not what you are to each other at all. But...you've seen him at
his God-bloody-worst, he's nearly killed you, nearly killed ---me---...and
he still does it for you. Think of it as a weakness if you want--I
know he does, in his case--but you're like the rest of us in that
regard. No matter what. That's just the way it is."

"You're wrong about one thing, Miles my love." Julian raised his head
and kissed Miles, intending it to be brief, but it turned out
otherwise.

Miles sighed in satisfaction as their mouths finally separated a
little. "What's that?"

"He does like you."

Miles pulled back slightly, brow contracting, to meet Julian's eyes.
"The hell he does. He thinks I'm boring, obvious and simplistic. Not
to mention sanctimonious."

"Believe it or not--in your case...I think he rather envies that."

("Call to Arms")

"Doctor."

Julian turned from a supply cabinet in the Defiant's small medical bay
and grinned. "Garak! Well thank God, you did make it."

"I did promise you."

"I still don't know why you gave me that ridiculous line about being
able to take care of yourself. Dukat would have hunted you down with
trained voles and then let them eat you." "He's tried even less
tasteful methods. Never underestimate my capacity for survival,
Doctor."

"At least not with Miles and I bullying you into it."

"Your perhaps overly avuncular husband did threaten to snatch me with
the ship's transporter and leave my clothes behind unless I came
aboard voluntarily."

"What did Captain Sisko say?"

"'Welcome aboard'. I believe he plans to keep me even more busy than
as of recent."

"Good, I didn't think he'd have any problem with this. Listen...we're
both--I mean, we're all busy now, and we'll be joining the task force
soon, and there's no telling how intense things will get after that,
for no telling how long...I wanted to say--even though we can't
really--"

"No need to explain, Doctor. This is war; duty calls to us both. I
agree we have no option but to table our personal concerns for the
time."

"Right, but..." Julian dropped his voice a bit, moving around the
worktable to where Garak stood. "Miles told me what he said to you,
about how I wouldn't change how I am with you--I won't, really--I'm
all right with us. We've...been able to get a little distance into
something different, but since there hasn't been nearly enough time
to--"

"Doctor, as far as I'm concerned, until such occasion as we have
leisure for further investigation--of whatever particular type--you
and I are two friends who, like everyone else, have been forced to
reduce to a low priority status questions such as the exact nature of
their relationship. It's not as if we're alone in these neces--"

"I do love you," Julian whispered, taking Garak's shoulders in his
hands. "Remember that--promise?"

Garak touched the younger man's face and said "If you'll promise to
remember it, too, my dear."

After a moment, Julian nodded understanding, gathered his courage and
kissed Garak; the other man responded, wrapping his arms around
Julian's waist and pulling them close. When their mouths separated,
Garak murmured, blue eyes bright, "Anon, my love."

Then he straightened, releasing Julian, and nodded to him with the
customary slight bow, and his usual inscrutable smile. "Doctor," he
said in his normal tone.

Julian nodded back to him. "I'll see you later, Garak."

Garak turned and left the medical bay.

Julian slumped against the table a moment, fingertips just touching
his lips. He was a little surprised to find that, even in this time
and place, he was smiling. He glanced up toward the corridor by which
Garak had left.

"Anon, Elim," he whispered. After a moment, he shook himself and
returned to inventorying the supplies.

---

The End