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Elim Garak passed his enjoined again, Dr. Julian Bashir, as they paced their living room, each with a crying infant in their arms. Cardassian flu had hit their regional province exceptionally hard, crowding hospitals and doctors’ offices to the point that other doctors from around Prime were temporarily coming in to help.
Julian, being human, was immune. Garak had caught a milder version but had still been down for three days. Their infants, Mila and Jules, unluckily had the worse variant, but luckily had a doctor father who could administer everything they needed. He and Julian had been up for the better part of two days just soothing and holding and administering medicines. Luckily, fevers had not hit critical, neither of their babies had stomach issues, and both ate okay, keeping dehydration fears down. Still, both had the awful full-body painful rash and the whooping cough that scared Garak and had Julian occasionally giving supplemental oxygen. Today though, so far, oxygen hadn’t been needed and Garak hoped that meant they were turning a corner.
Mila let out a fresh wail and Garak curled his arms tighter around his daughter.
“When was the last time I ate?” Julian asked.
“Huh?” Garak responded.
“I can’t remember the last time I ate.” Garak watched Julian adjust his grip on Jules.
“I…” Garak thought a moment. “I don’t remember either.”
Julian sighed. “I can’t remember about showers either.”
Garak took a look at his enjoined; the unkempt hair, the sweat-stained pajamas, the hair growing in on his face, the bags under his eyes, and realized that he probably looked, and smelled, no better.
“And I’m going to need to order more medicine.”
“And I’ll pick it up.”
Julian blushed. When the flu first started out in their household, Julian had gone to pick up the ordered meds but had become embroiled in helping out at the hospital. Garak hadn’t been angry; instead he had been proud that his spouse had put Prime first, but afterwards he did insist that while Julian could order, he would be picking things up.
Mila arched her back and wailed and Garak saw Jules do the same.
“Isn’t there anything else?” He switched Mila in his arms.
“I ordered the topical paste, but you can imagine that they’re short on stock and long on orders.” Julian bounced Jules in his arms as he paced.
“I know we don’t have it as bad as others, but….this is bad to me.”
Julian nodded. “I know.”
“Still love you.”
Julian looked at Garak and slightly smiled. “I still love you.”
A knock came from the front door.
Since moving to the provinces, they had built a small community of friends, mostly other doctors and retired politicians, but did not engage in the large social circle that they had had to contend with in the capital as Castellan and First Spouse. Garak had made it a point to only make a handful of friends while Julian went a little wider. Neither knew who was knocking.
“Can I hand you Jules?”
Garak shifted Mila to his shoulder and carefully helped transfer Jules to his other one. Both babies squawked their displeasure.
Julian opened the door.
Garak glimpsed an elderly, Cardassian lady on their front doorstep. She held two bags.
“Castellan, First Spouse.” Many older Cardassians still used their previous titles in deference to the work they had done to rebuild Prime. Garak as the head of the Cardassian government and Julian as head of the capital city’s main hospital, had worked tirelessly to help rebuild Cardassian society. When they had adopted three war orphans, it had only endeared them more to the populace.
Garak wondered when the last time was he had spoken with his eldest children. Julian had mentioned they had called and he wondered if he had been down with the flu at the time. He knew Julian had pointedly asked that they stay away, not wanting any of them to become sick as well.
“Can we help you?” Julian asked, in a much nicer voice than Garak could have done.
“I’m your neighbor up on the hill. Elta Untek, but call me Auntie; that’s what everyone called me on the hill. We met at the welcoming dinner for the neighborhood a little over a couple of years ago.”
Welcoming dinners were Cardassian traditions to vet new neighbors. Yes, it was a neighborhood potluck, as Julian called them, with food and conversation, but it was also a subversive way to check out the new people, fulfilling Cardassians natural trend towards paranoia and noisiness.
“I can’t make it to all the dinners, but I made it a point to make yours.”
“I’m sorry. Maybe I’ll remember later. Right now neither my husband nor I can remember if we ate or not,” Julian apologetically replied.
“No parent does when a child is sick. Most parents wake up and it’s a week later and the house needs cleaning, dirty dishes have overflowed down a counter, and somehow your entire wardrobe is empty.”
“You’ve been a parent.”
“Three; they had their own lives complete with spouses and kids themselves.”
Even Garak caught the use of the past tense when she spoke about her family.
“I’m sorry,” he heard Julian whisper. “I’m sorry to hear you lost family members.”
“Lost every single one.”
Garak held both his kids a little tighter, who mewled at the treatment.
“That’s why I couldn’t leave the house even though it’s not much of a house, even today. Thank you Castellan for not forcing us to.”
Many Cardassians had used the remains of their former homes to build makeshift shelters after the bombing and the fires. However, many of these proved death traps to many survivors due to being crushed when they fell over during inclement weather or in general because they weren’t reinforced. Garak had moved decisively to start a building program and move people to safer housing. Yet, he didn’t force people to move and a, not insignificant, part of the population decided to stay with what they had, usually because of memories. Eventually, when everything was more or less back together, he had gone back to those survivors and offered to have their places rebuilt with the builders incorporating part of the ruined structure. Many took him up on that offer, but some were still mulling things over nearly a decade later.
Auntie broke the silence. “I don’t want to keep you since you have sick children, but I stopped by the hospital and market.” She held out a bag. “I figured you could use some food for yourselves and some topical paste for the babies.”
Garak immediately knew what was coming; Julian burst into tears.
“Thank you,” he sobbed. “Thank you.”
He could hear Auntie do that tongue-click sound that only older females seemed to be able to pull off. Even his infants seemed to grow a little quieter in their crying hearing that sound.
Next thing he knew he and Julian were showered and shaved, in Julian’s case, sitting on the couch drinking hot tea and eating hot simait soup. Mila and Jules were sound asleep in their mobile bassinettes, bellies full and covered in topical paste. Dishes were cleaned, kitchen sparkling, sheets changed, clothes sorted for eventual laundering, and the house picked up.
He snuggled into the warm blanket thrown around him and marveled at the scenery change.
“You are a miracle worker Untek. Thank you.”
Auntie sat on the loveseat, “You did so much for us Castellan. This seems nothing in comparison.”
“It means the world to us.”
“It felt good to have something to do.”
“Are you by yourself on the hill?” Julian asked, snuggling deeper into his own blanket.
She nodded. “Five of us decided to stay with what we had. All of us had lost everything and all we had were each other.” She grew quiet. “Right about the time these two were hatching,” she indicated Mila and Jules, “my last friend died. I’ve tried to go on, but it gets a little harder each year not to mention each week. I finally decided to take advantage of that building program you put in place where they’ll use what they can from your old house to build your new one.”
“Will you leave the province?”
“No. I grew up here, raised my family here; it is too important to me. Coincidentally, they are finishing out this neighborhood here.”
“Five more houses going in!” Julian exclaimed.
Garak inwardly celebrated that he had put their new home on the border of the wild area that the neighborhood was keeping. It meant no neighbors or houses to their east and south nor were they at the entrance to the neighborhood. It gave them a little more quiet than some of the others, which they both craved.
“Including mine.”
“Oh, you get to stay in the neighborhood!”
She nodded. “I’ll actually be your next-door neighbor.”
“Will wonders never cease.”
“I’ll take the small blessings when they come,” she replied.
They lapsed into a quiet silence.
“I’d best be going and leave you two alone.”
“You are invited back whether or not you bring more than just yourself.”
“Thank you. You both are invited to my house warming.”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Thank you again, Untek,” Garak quietly stated.
“Call me Auntie, Castellan.”