The BLTS Archive- Who Do Ya Love?
by Blue Champagne (rowan-shults@sbcglobal.net)

---

Miles sighed. Julian was late yet again. Granted he'd been 
awfully damn busy lately, but usually he remembered to call.

Maybe another emergency surgical case. Miles got up from 
his table at Quarks, pulling his flying helmet and goggles 
off, and started for the infirmary.

He entered; things seemed fairly placid, but Julian was not 
in evidence. "Hello, Dr. Guirani. Is Julian still around?"

"Late again, I take it?" Guirani smiled and called "Akula, 
isn't Doctor Bashir still in the lab?"

"I believe so--"

"Miles!" came Julian's voice--sounding just a bit odd, 
perhaps he had a cold he hadn't rid himself of yet--from 
somewhere in the depths of the place. "Terribly sorry, time 
got away from me again--I'll be right there; I brought my 
outfit with me."

Julian emerged in a few minutes, striding out of the lab in 
full flight ensemble, though with the helmet in one hand 
and the jacket thrown over that arm. "Ready, willing and 
able, mate--the kites' fueled up?" Julian grinned. Same 
grin. Same molten gold eyes and skin. Same height. But he 
looked...his chin wasn't as pronounced, his nose somewhat 
slimmer, his hair was far too long, curling down past his 
collar and bouncing across his brow in dark gold-glinting 
waves...and he certainly hadn't had that appealingly 
rounded cleavage that was displayed by his still 
half-buttoned shirt. In fact, generally speaking...he was a 
woman.

Julian stopped dead, brow contracting. "Miles. Is something 
wrong?"

"AAUGH!" Miles jerked awake. "What the bloody *hell* was 
that all about?" he wondered, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I 
don't WANT to know what part of my subconscious *that* came 
from..."

"Hmm?" Keiko murmured, shifting, still mostly asleep.

"A very bizarre dream," Miles sighed. "Something damn 
strange had happened to Julian."

"What?" she wondered.

"Um...maybe I'll just try to forget about it." He got up 
and headed for the bathroom to shower.

His first order of the day, in fact, was some work in the 
infirmary that Julian wouldn't trust to anyone else, and he 
was meeting the doctor for breakfast before. "Good thing," 
he muttered, getting into his uniform. "Get that piece of 
rubbish out of my head right off."

At the replimat, he glanced around, but didn't see Julian; 
one thing the dream had got correctly was the doctor's 
tendency to be late recently, though swamped as he was, 
Miles couldn't blame him. He procured his standard 
breakfast and turned to find an empty table.

"Over here, Miles."

"Julian? Where were you a minute a--" he stopped. A tall, 
elegant young woman in a blue uniform was standing up from 
a half-empty tray with a dead teacup she probably intended 
to refill, smiling Julian's smile at him. As she gained her 
feet, Miles was treated to the sight of how nicely Julian's 
uniform skimmed the contours of smoothly flared hips, 
narrow waist, and modest but quite sufficient bosom.

Miles's tray crashed to the floor.

"Chief!" Julian set the cup down and hurried to him, 
extending a hand to support him. When the impeccably 
manicured fingers touched his arm, Miles stumbled backward 
and fell--

At the jolt, he was disoriented to find himself on his feet 
again, and someone was steadying him as a brilliant gold 
light slowly faded from his vision.

"Miles?" Kira was holding him by the shoulders as an 
acolyte closed the doors of the case of the Orb of Prophecy 
and Change. He blinked a couple of times, clinging to her 
for balance, and whispered "Orb experience?"

"Yes--here, come sit down, experiences can be hard to take 
in..." she guided him to a bench by a small bubbling 
fountain and an open door that led onto a green courtyard.

"I'm on Bajor," he muttered.

"Yes," Kira nodded, apparently finding nothing unusual in 
his present state. "You asked me to help you arrange a 
visit to look into the Orb. The Captain and I set it up, 
and I came along to be your safety net. It's a good thing I 
did, too, looks like."

"Yes...I think I remember now. Thank you, Nerys. It 
was...did I tell you why I wanted to look into the Orb?"

"No; you didn't even tell Keiko. I figured from that that 
it really was serious, and that maybe the only ones you 
*could* turn to for guidance were the Prophets. That's why 
I agreed to help."

"Thanks again."

"Come on; our transport flight was canceled, but I got us 
onto one that leaves in just a few minutes. We'll need to 
hurry. You feel like you can navigate that far?"

"Oh, sure." He stood. "I may offer you my arm in case I 
stumble, though."

She chuckled. "Here, I'll offer you mine." They left the 
chamber arm-in-arm; Kira spoke briefly with the attending 
Vedek on their way out.

They were nearly to the port when Kira finally broke the 
silence, saying "Do you feel like talking about it?"

God, no. "Not...not yet. I'd rather turn everything over in 
my head a few times first."

"I understand. The Prophets...they have their own ways of 
communicating, and sometimes we can't see what they mean to 
say at once. They do take our own...viewpoints, our own 
thoughts, to work with, in presenting the experience as 
well as understanding what it is we need. I'd probably just 
come to the wrong conclusions anyway, since the same 
symbols would mean something different for me than for you."

"Well, Nerys, if I do decide I need to talk about 
someone--I mean, talk about it with someone--I'll come to 
you. You may not live inside my head, but you understand 
the mysterious ways the Prophets move in better than any of 
my other friends."

"I'd be happy to help." She squeezed his hand and they 
lapsed back into comfortable silence.

On the transport, she suggested he nap part of the trip. 
"Sometimes the dream images help clarify things."

"Good idea. I'm feeling a bit drained in any case."

---

Back on the station, he made the walk to his quarters with 
his mind in a whirl. He almost wished Keiko and the kids 
weren't home at the moment; he could have used the quiet, 
but Keiko would be willing to give him space. He did need 
to pay a bit of attention to Molly and Yoshi, though; it 
wasn't as though any of this was their fault.

He came in; Keiko was just setting Molly in her booster 
chair at the table. "Honey," she greeted him, smiling.

He stopped, puzzled. "Hello love--where's the high chair?"

"*High* chair?" Keiko wondered. "Molly hasn't needed a high 
chair for a while now."

"*I* could use one," came Julian's voice from behind him. 
Miles turned. Julian was sitting on the sofa, twisting 
awkwardly to get a hand on the coffee table to push himself 
to his feet with. The prominent curve of his belly was in 
the way. He was gently draped in a very fetching 
ivory-colored tunic that displayed his rounded shoulders 
and luminous skin, and the sculpted lines of his 
well-fleshed legs, to lovely effect. "It'd be easier to 
fall out of a chair than have to get up from one. Keiko, if 
this happens again, Kira's taking the baby. I've done *my* 
part."

"Don't be silly, Julian, she's Bajoran. Miles, don't just 
stare at her, go give her a hand up."

Miles made a small noise as Julian looked up at him, 
smiling wryly at her own predicament.

The chief then proceeded to faint dead away.

He realized he'd moved; he was flat on his back on a firm 
but padded surface. He was afraid to open his eyes.

"He's coming to, Doctor."

It was Guirani's voice. Miles tracked it and risked a look. 
"Dr. Guirani?"

"Lie still, Chief," came a squawky voice on his other side, 
and Miles turned his head--too quickly--to see that the 
other Doctor in question was Imachram Andelghi. "Now, 
now--I saw that wince and it serves you right for moving so 
abruptly. You had a *very* nasty plasma shock."

"Ungh...feels like it. Where?"

"Bit of amnesia? Only natural in these cases. You were 
working on the Defiant."

"Mm...is it...is it normal to...dream, when you're 
unconscious from..."

"It isn't unheard of at all, but personally I think it's a 
matter of a rush of synapse activity during the process of 
regaining consciousness after this particular sort of 
trauma, rather than a true--"

"BLOODY HELL!!"

Miles twitched. "That was Julian!"

The two doctors traded looks over him and Guirani said 
"Yes, we weren't sure we should mention it quite yet..."

"What? What's happened?"

"Nothing you need to worry about-- everything's proceeding 
perfectly normally, and after we're sure you're recovered 
enough you'll be able to get up and go in--"

"LUMA! Get the HELL away from me with that damn monitor and 
PREPARE FOR A FETAL TRANSPORT!"

"Julian--" Keiko's voice.

"Let go of me, Keiko, I've HAD it with your blithering 
damned folderol, I'm SICK of pushing and that's ALL THERE 
IS TO IT!"

"Dr. Bashir went into labor a couple of hours ago, while we 
were still keeping you unconscious," Guirani explained 
meekly.

"And she isn't taking it very well," Andelghi added. "It IS 
proceeding *quite* rapidly, you'd think she'd be grateful 
for that, but no..."

"AAAAAUUUUGH! Damn you for a randy rutting GOAT, Miles 
Edward O'Brien!!"

Miles's head hit the biobed again as his eyes fell shut.

---

{And now it's time for the Reader Survey! What ending do 
YOU think would be best here?}

---
{Ending #1}:
---

"Miles. Come on, now...you can hear me, can't you..."

"Juli--ack!"

Someone took the hand he tried to raise to his head and 
pressed it back down. "Don't move. I do need you to stay 
awake for me, though. That was a hell of a knock. They'll 
be through to us in just a moment and then we'll get you to 
the infirmary."

"What..."

"Let's just say I plan to pay much closer attention to you 
from now on, deciding on shortcut routes, when you tell me 
there's a reason your people put up barricades around areas 
where they're doing structural repairs. When that brace 
gave you shoved me out of the way, but it pulled another 
loose and you took it full on the cranium."

"Mm. When?"

"About ten minutes ago. You've been muttering something for 
the last five about some woman."

"Who?"

"I don't know, but she seems to have something to do with 
me--I think I caught my name once--and she apparently 
frightens you right into next week."

Miles groped upward with one hand, contacted the front of 
Julian's uniform and felt vigorously around on it for a 
moment.

"Miles?! Whatever are you--"

"Oh thank God," Miles muttered, grabbing Julian in both 
hands and pulling him off balance. The pain in his head 
when the other man landed on him was blinding, but it was 
worth it. "I love you just as you are, Julian."

"Well for pity's sake, I love you too, whatever that's all 
about--now damn all, let go! I've got no way to see whether 
your spine's damaged and you shouldn't be mo--*whoops* 
that's it, just roll over a little and don't choke on it, 
try to heave it up that way a bit, we may have to keep 
company with it for a few more minutes...heavens, you *are* 
concussed."

---
(Ending #2}:
---

Miles was abruptly pulled to one side and nearly fell out 
of his chair as the holohood was yanked off his head. His 
dazed eyes blinked at the sight of Julian, who was holding 
the hood-- and Dax, Kira and Odo standing around him in the 
wardroom, giggling.

"That'll teach you to nod off in the middle of a briefing," 
Julian snickered.

Miles went into seek-and-destroy mode and chased Julian all 
the way back to his quarters.

---
{Ending #3}:
---

"OH for--" Miles slumped again, letting his face fall into 
his hands.

There was a sleepy stirring next to him. "Is something 
wrong, honey?"

"Bizarre damn dream. I kept thinking I was awake, but then 
some other twisted thing would happen...I couldn't be sure 
if I was awake, asleep, semiconscious...it was the oddest 
thing. Not the least of the twists was--you're not going to 
believe this--"

"Believe what?"

"Well, for one thing...you were a woman, for pete's sake,"  
Miles chuckled.

"Really!" Julian sat up next to him and slid his arms 
around Miles's waist, resting his chin on Miles's shoulder. 
"Tell me--what did I look like?"

---

The End