Chapter Text
Julian raised his head and wiped his mouth from where he was knelt over the toilet. Must have been too wild of a night with Miles, Jadzia had shown up and goaded him into shots which was obviously a bad decision now that he looks back at it.
“My dear?” Garak hurried into the bathroom and helped him up, “Are you sick?” Julian waved his hand in a noncommittal gesture,
“Yes but there's no virus to blame, just my own bad judgement. I have a hangover,” he went to the replicator and asked for a mint tea, “Strange though, I usually get a monster of a headache along with it.”
“Are you complaining?” He shrugs,
“Oh of course not, it's just strange.”
--
The nausea went away by lunch which was good and Julian met with Garak at the Replimat where they were eating every day now. Neither thought it was a particularly good idea to go public but it was getting harder and harder to be apart. Garak may be good at self denial but when Julian was in love he got clingy. Was that what this was? Were they in love? That could be trouble later on when Julian inevitably wanted to become official or when he left. Garak didn't think he could handle that, even if he was in exile Julian made him actually happy , something he couldn't remember being. Yikes. If only Tain could see him now, living as a shopkeeper on a Bajoran space station in love with a human. A human man no less. Garak held back a genuine smile as Julian played footsie under the table. He was a sap.
“Are you feeling any better, Doctor?” Julian looked up from his soup,
“Hm? Oh yes, it went away by the time I got to Sickbay. Speaking of which you'll never believe what Morn told me today-” and then someone sat down at the table next to them with what smelled to be something fermented and then Julian ended up vomiting in a potted plant. Garak had to stop himself from hissing and snapping at any passerby but allowed himself to stand guard over his Doctor in his vulnerable state. “Well,” he paused to clear his throat, “it appears I may have picked something up.”
“Perhaps you should take the day off. I'm sure the station could go without your healing touch for one day.” Julian shook his head,
“I don't have a fever and besides this I don't have any other symptoms. I'll check to see if I'm contagious and take an anti-nausea hypo. I'm just surprised, I hardly ever get sick.”
“ Julian. ”
“No! I'm serious! I'm fine! I think I would know better than anyone.” Garak sighed, he would not win this argument,
“I guess what they say is true.”
“What's that?”
“That doctors make the worst patients.”
--
“Really Julian, you need to see someone about this,” Garak scolded him as he just got done throwing up in the sink for the fourth morning in the row. Julian had scanned himself for a stomach bug the second day but found nothing and he was avoiding having someone else take a look at him out of pure ego. But losing his breakfast every morning was getting old, and Garak's damn rokassa juice when he stayed over wasn't helping.
“I'll run a full body scan as soon as I get to the Infirmary, don't worry.”
“Worry?”
“I'm sorry is that not what your were doing?” he grinned, “Can't let your Cardassian secret agent friends know you actually care about me?”
“My secret agent friends? Dear you must stop projecting your fantasies onto me! This spy fetish of yours is taking over our relationship!”
“So we are, in fact, in a romantic relationship?” Garak froze,
“I have to go open up shop.” Julian snickered throughout his hasty retreat, but kindly didn't mention the blue flush of his spoon.
--
Julian didn't have to leave until after lunch so he attempted breakfast again after the nausea had died down, just some toast and tea as he's been eating as of late. He finished the book Garak had given him, a romance story of a man who impregnates his mistress and their letters to each other in jail. It ended poorly of course, the woman was executed, the man exiled, and the child never mentioned again but what was to be expected of a Cardassian romance novel. Julian had it in his mind to give Garak some Nicholas Sparks.
Julian takes a bath, a real bath with actual water and bubbles to treat himself after the rough week he's had. He reads a paper on theoretically slowing down cellular degradation but is disappointed that only half of the points made have any real merit. And then afterwards he's tired again? At 11:00? Weird. Nonetheless, he takes a nap and meets Garak for lunch where he complains about the end of the book and Garak has that smirk because he picks books to make Julian mad on purpose like an asshole because he likes how flustered and offended Julian gets. They part ways at 13:00 and Julian heads to the Infirmary to start his shift. After relocating Miles’s shoulder the second time this month he finds time to lay down in a biobed and run a full body scan on himself. The computer beeps signaling the results are ready. Bashir takes a look at the console and nearly passed out. He puts a hand over his mouth and then runs his fingers through his hair. He doesn't know how to react,
“I'm pregnant.”