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That other world is too good to be true. This is Miles’s opinion about it and he will never change his mind.
Yes, there are still wars, accidents, even horrors.
But he never regrets crossing the Mirror, coming back with Julian and Major Nerys, even if the woman still terrify him, years after leaving his own universe, and the Intendant, behind.
He hopes Sisko's Mirror Universe counterpart succeed in building something, of starting a rebellion and liberating the Terrans. He hopes one day his own universe learns everything this one did but it will be without him. Integrating himself had been difficult but now, he’s home. Starfleet was everything Julian had told him it was. At the beginning, he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. For Starfleet to reveal his dark side. For the other Miles, the one who was born there, to demand he was sent back. For people to abuse him, hurt him.
Julian stayed with him every step of the way. At first, it was probably because the doctor felt responsible for him, for that man transplanted from a violent universe. He guided Miles, weeks after weeks. He was a safety blanket in the beginning, Miles is man enough to admit it. He had needed time to open to others, but the Doctor had been safe, from the beginning, healer and advisor, then friend.
Then things changed between them, and Julian insisted someone else should be his doctor.
Tomorrow, they will ship again for Deep Space Nine after a long travel across the Federation, with Earth as a last stop. It was good to discover other worlds, other cultures, so many joys and pleasures and places.
It’s still time to go back, but with a difference:. Miles O’Brien, version two, will go back as a member of Starfleet, and not as a refugee.
Julian snores lightly against his shoulder and Miles smiles. They need to go back to their cabin: they decided to spend their last five days with a trip to the lake Baikal and the temperature drops terribly in the night.
But for now, as his lover sleeps against him, a man who was born in slavery in another universe watches the sun set on the lake Baikal and thanks the gods that he made that choice, all those years ago, and followed a stranger with an impossible tale of another universe.