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Elim Garak stood outside the bay doors, his daughter in his arms. Kira Nerys stood beside him, busily typing on a PADD.
“Did Sisko say how everyone was?” Garak couldn’t help it; his enjoined’s first mission after paternity leave and he was anxious to have him home.
She didn’t look up from the PADD. “Everyone’s fine.” She briefly glanced up and smiled at the baby. “Hello gorgeous.”
His daughter giggled and buried her face in his neck, clutching her favorite blanket closer to her. “Ya, Ya.”
“She’s adorable.”
Garak smiled down at his eggling and then kissed her head. She looked up and smiled at him.
“Ya, Ya,” she smacked her lips.
“How can I say no?” he teased and kissed both her cheeks.
She giggled.
Even Kira now stood smiling at them.
“You know you surprised everyone,” she said to Garak.
“Did I?”
“Stay-at-home parent was not our bingo card for you, as the humans would say.” She thought, “I’m not sure exactly what that means, but, well, I think I used it correctly.”
He shrugged then nodded and looked again at his daughter who seemed transfixed with something on the ceiling.
“Surprised me as well. But I had a lot of time to think things through before she was born.”
“Considering I heard you were stuck in the nest you probably had quite a bit of time to think about a lot of things.”
“Nest confinement is aptly named and not something I enjoyed. Chu’lian and Dr. Girani didn’t like my near-term readings so that was the solution.”
“Da, da?” his daughter asked.
“On his way,” he replied to her.
“So you decided at that moment?”
He shook his head. “No, it took lay and hatching to really make up my mind.” He got quiet. “You’re lying back and everything hurts; you’re breathing just to breathe and you cannot believe that you went through that ordeal. You’re feeling out of control and nothing makes sense. But you see your enjoined holding the egg and the smile on his face and tears filling his eyes….And then it all changes just a few days later. You’re holding this crying, squirming, wet, small, being in your arms and all you want to do is soothe and calm and hold. Hemming dresses and pants didn’t seem all that important anymore. Besides, helping out the other tailor on the station lets me keep my skills going.”
“Still, we were all surprised.”
“No one so much as myself.”
His daughter babbled at someone as they walked past.
“First away mission after everything? Usually you aren’t here at the bay doors.”
“Yep. Chu’lian went part-time once we established her routine, which took a few months. It’s only been three weeks since he went back to full-time with his leave ending. And then he was called away for this.”
The bay doors opened at that moment and Starfleet personnel started to slowly exit. They left individually or in small groups, talking amongst themselves.
His daughter began to bounce in his arms.
“Aya,” he cautioned.
“Da, da! Da, da! Da, da!” she cried.
Kira smiled wider. “She must see him.”
“I don’t….” But then he caught a glimpse of his enjoined, engaged in a spirited discussion with someone before his view was obscured by others.
“You have good eyesight my dear,” he told her.
“Ya, ya; Da, da!” she pointed.
“He’s coming, my hatchling.”
She whined a bit.
And then DS9’s CMO, Dr. Julian Bashir, was walking through the doors. Garak’s heart still lurched at the sight of him after all these years.
“Darling,” his doctor said as he came over and put his arms around him.
“My dear,” he softly whispered back.
He felt Julian claim his lips in a soft kiss.
It was broken by a very insistent baby.
“Da, da!” accompanied by lips smacking.
Julian laughed. “You know I’d never forget you!” he said, turning towards their daughter and lightly kissing her all around her face. She laughed in delight.
“Let me carry her,” Julian said. “You deserve some rest too.”
Garak wasn’t about to say no and handed their daughter over.
Julian settled her against his left side and reached for Garak’s hand with his right. He entwined their hands together. “I’m hungry, let’s go eat, yeah? Oh, hi Kira!”
Kira had gone back to her PADD. “Just waiting for Sisko,” she replied. “She’s a cutie.”
“Thanks! He should be through soon.”
“Thanks Julian.”
He and Garak started to move away.
“Aya hasn’t eaten yet either,” Garak said.
“No?”
“She wouldn’t settle.”
“Is that a sign that she’s ready to wean?”
Garak nodded. “At least for some meals. Usually, first-morning feeds and bedtime feeds are the last to be given up. Probably because bedtime settles them for sleeping and morning gets their system started. We’ll start with mushy foods since she doesn’t have teeth yet.”
“She’s going to love applesauce!” Julian stated.
Garak smiled at the human obsession with the dish.
“I’ve missed you!” Julian said out of the blue.
“We’ve missed you as well.”
“I cannot believe that before I would just leave and come back from a mission and nothing felt different. Now…well…things are different.” He grew pensive.
“My dear….”
“I don’t know if I want to stay in Starfleet any longer,” Julian responded softly.
Garak knew his face portrayed the stunned look he felt.
“But I don’t know what to do otherwise.”
“Heart of my heart, we don’t have to decide anything today. We can start looking and planning and thinking about what we’d like before we finally make a solid decision.”
“You’d leave the station?”
“Where you are is my home, wherever the actual place may be.”
“My love…” Julian stopped in the middle of the Promenade, turned to Garak and captured his lips. Garak didn’t care that people had to part around them in order to keep moving. He hummed in delight.
“Ya, ya! Da, da!” their daughter made smacking sounds again.
Julian ended the kiss. “Of course you need kisses too!” he cried in delight as he kissed around her face. She screeched in happiness.
Garak happily smiled at his family.
As Julian finished, Garak teasingly said, “Where’s my kisses?”
“Oh, Aya, we forgot Yadik!” He held their daughter out. She happily made smacking noises at him and he came in to kiss both her cheeks. She held her arms out and he took her back.
“B, B, Ya, ya. B, B.”
“Darling, she forgot her blanket on your shoulder.”
“Oh, sorry, lovey.” Julian handed the blanket over. “Here you go.”
She grabbed it and cuddled back into Garak.
“You hungry too, my love?” Julian asked.
“I could eat something small, like a bowl of tarlek soup.”
“Okay. Why don’t you grab a table at the Replimat and I’ll grab the food? I’m also going to see about that applesauce for her.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Their daughter hummed.
Garak smiled at having his family back together again.
************************************
Garak laughed as Julian spooned a bit of applesauce into their daughter’s mouth. Her eyes lit up and she appeared a little stunned.
“Ma,” she looked at her human father and opened and closed one hand fast.
“You were right.”
“She has my genes and I adored applesauce.”
“You still do, my dear.”
Julian licked a bit off the spoon.
“Da, da!” Aya remonstrated.
Julian smiled at their daughter and gave her another bite.
“It won’t fill her up though.”
“No, though it is a good introduction to solid food.”
Julian sighed.
“My dear?”
“Just another reminder that she’s getting older. Pretty soon we’ll be scaring possible significant others away.”
“I do believe there are a few more steps between applesauce and dating.”
“It just seems like yesterday we were pacing the nursery and trying to get a new baby to sleep. It goes by so fast.”
Aya looked at Julian expectantly. He spooned another small bite. She hummed as she worked the food around her mouth and then looked at him again.
“All gone baby girl.” He moved the small bowl and spoon to the tray with their own empty plates.
She peered at the tray and cocked her head. She huffed and then turned to Garak.
“Ya, ya; ma.”
“I agree with your Daddy, my eggling.”
She huffed again. “Ma!”
“Chu’lian I love you but if you turn our child into a tyrant for applesauce, we are definitely having a conversation.”
She held her arms out and Garak picked her up. She tried to wiggle down into his lap, muttering, “Ma,” again and again.
“Oh! Now you’re hungry?!?!” He still wore his suckling shirt and unbuttoned the bottom half. As she lay out and latched onto the nursing ridge, Garak covered her with her blanket and curled an arm around her body to help her stay in place.
Julian chuckled. “I’ll pick everything up. Be right back.”
She was still eating when he returned.
“We’ll just wait for her,” Julian replied.
Garak smiled at his enjoined. “How was the mission?”
“A success.”
“I hear a but.”
“Just things have changed and I’m not as excited about going on missions.”
“Are you serious about what you said before?”
Julian nodded. “I think I am. Remember what you told me after lay?”
“The part where I was like, ‘what the hell did I just go through?’” Julian laughed. “Or the part where I felt like things had changed and shifted.”
“The latter part. I just feel like I’m generally done with Starfleet. I’ve done what I wanted to do and feel restless for something else. Plus, I don’t like being away for weeks at a time from you two. Things have changed since she came along.”
Garak just nodded. “Well, we don’t have to decide today. We’ll just start looking into things.”
“You don’t mind my darling?”
“I can do tailoring work anywhere and raising children can be done practically on any planet.”
“We just have our baby girl.”
“But what if we want more?” Garak asked.
Julian sat back. “I distinctly remember you snarling at me during the pushing stage that you were not going to do that again.”
Garak looked down at their covered daughter. “I think I’ve also changed my mind.”
“Darling,” Julian held out a hand. Garak entwined their fingers together.
“It sounds like we’re both ready to move on.”
Garak smiled.
“Yes, I think we are.”