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Julian was bending towards the bleeding ensign, yanking at his bag. A sudden, vice-tight pressure around his waist and Julian was yanked backwards into the darkness.
“Let me go!” he hissed.
“You can’t save everyone, Doctor!” Garak hissed right back, right into his ear, holding him pinned against his chest.
“I can save her!”
“Doctor, if you stop now, the Jem’Hadar will kill you and slaughter everyone on this station. The Dominion will win this. If you go to OPS, we all might stand a chance!”
Garak let him go. For a moment, he considered bolting. It would be a gamble. He wasn’t sure which one of them was stronger than the other, but he knew for sure that he was faster.
Or did he? He’d almost seen stars getting pulled backwards into the dark. It hadn’t been a few meters, he could see that now. It had been almost 25.
“Doctor,” Garak was watching him, “I will not let you go back. I am going to stop you if you try.”
He could feel the tears. He could hear Ensign Lillard’s wet moans.
Garak’s fingers were fast too. If he hadn’t the advantages he’d be rewritten to have, he wouldn’t have seen the phaser come up or the setting flick from kill to stun.
“If I have to render you unconscious to get you to the Commander, I will.”
He, humiliatingly, lost his sight to tears.
“I am stopping you,” Garak repeated, “I … am stopping you from going back.”
He let the tears come, but he took a deep breath and started towards OPS anyway. He needed his hands to climb; he couldn’t cover his ears.
*
“Mr. Garak.”
“Just Garak, Commander.”
“Doctor Bashir’s reports tell me that without your intervention, Ensign Lillard might have survived the attack on the station.”
“Ah, she did not. I am truly sorry to hear this, Commander. Believe me -”
“Are you? Bashir tells me you yanked him out of a fire fight with the Jem’Hadar that shot her and forced him at gunpoint to walk in front of you all the way to OPS.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“The good Doctor may be under the misapprehension that I am very strong.”
“Based on Ensign Lillard’s autopsy, had you not done all of these things, she would have died anyway, followed by the Doctor and most of the people on this station.”
“Well, the good Doctor does tend towards the melodramatic - As … I’m sure you are aware, given that you are his commanding officer.”
“Garak.”
“Yes, Commander?”
“Battle does things to a man. It hardens him. If Doctor Bashir does not become hard enough to make those kinds of decisions for himself, he and everyone who reports to him will be just as dead as Ensign Lillard as soon as he's the most senior officer in the room.”
“I ... see.”
“Thank you for saving his life. It saved all of ours.” Sisko leaned in, his voice a rumble almost as low as an engine hum, “In fact, Garak, save as many lives as you want. But make another decision for him or any of my officers again and you will live to regret it.”