What Ails You
At 3am he was still staring at the computer screen.
"There's a quaint little tradition here on Earth, called sleep."
He keeps his eyes on the swirling molecules on the screen. "Is there?"
"And I spent three hours this morning cleaning out the guest room. I even did hospital corners."
He just points at the screen. "That's malaria."
I lean in and place a hand on his shoulder. "I heard about Selonart. You did what you could."
And he smiles. "Yes, some of my best work. You'd think I'd be proud."
"You saved a lot of lives."
He looks up, away from the swirling virus. "I go to a lot of conferences these days, Miles."
But I don't get what he means, not right away. "You're good at what you do."
He looks back at the screen, points to what I assume is a significant bit. "If you swap these two base pairs, malaria becomes incurable. It looks like a natural mutation, and it would take a damn good doctor to be able to spot it. It would take a much better one to swap them round in the first place."
Suddenly, the room seems a lot colder. "Someone made this?"
It's just a whisper when he answers, and he doesn't look back up at me. "I made it."
"I go to a lot of..." Shit.
"31?"
"Selonart was going to cede from the Federation in the next ten years. After the Dominion War, we aren't very happy about colonies wanting to go it alone." He reaches out and runs his fingers along the DNA strands on the screen. "But now they've had an all-out medical rescue attempt. The remaining population owe us a lot."
Oh, Christ. "You...made an incurable disease...for Section 31?"
"Yes."
"For Pete's sake, Julian! What the hell were you thinking? All we went through to bring them down and you go off and work for them. Have you gone crazy? Why did you do it?"
"Ezri."
The man's an idiot. "Look, I know how much you love her, but she's a grown woman. She's smart. She can take care of herself. You don't have to sell your soul to keep her safe."
"She's pregnant."
Now that's news, and I wonder why he didn't tell me about it the second he stepped off the transport ship. "Did they threaten you? Did they say they'd do something to the baby?"
He meets my gaze, "No. Actually, they were very helpful."
Sometimes I wish he'd remember that I'm not as smart as he is. I'd forgive him condescension just this once. "What then? A better job? Latinum? The wedding gift of your choice? A nice little mobile for the nursery?"
Because I'm angry now. I'm so angry that I don't care what I say. He's thrown away everything we did to try and stop 31 for ever. He has a nice new job that involves killing people.
"Human and Trill DNA is compatible in about forty-one percent of cases. It turns out to be substantially less so if one of you's had your genes resequenced."
"Christ...couldn't you just adopt?"
"It was what she wanted, Miles. Ezri's my weakness and they know it. I"d do anything to make her happy." He stares at me, resolute. "Anything."
"Does she know?"
"She thinks it was an old friend of mine. A fertility expert." He smiles again, a little bitter. "Sometimes I can be incredibly stupid about the decisions I make."
"I've noticed."
"Are you saying you wouldn't have done it?"
Bastard. "I wouldn't've...well...I...I don't know. You can't be hypothetical about these things. You just have to do what you think is best."
"You're the only person I've told. You know what they're like. If anything happens to me..."
"Yeah. I know." And we sit in silence for a couple of minutes. I wonder if there really is a hell. Finally I just have to speak, because it seems so much easier than thinking.
"So, is it a boy or a girl?"
"Girl. We were thinking of calling her Aisha. Maybe Jadzia."
"They're both good names. How far along is she?"
"Two months."
"You know, Keiko's going to kill you for not telling her sooner. Think of all the cooing time she's missed."
And we both laugh at that, and for a moment it's just like old times. Him doing stupid things, me having to handle that fall-out. But...
"Julian, if anything you do ever threatens Keiko, or the kids..."
"Yeah, I know."
"Get some sleep. I'm going to beat you at darts tomorrow, and you'll need your strength to cope with the disappointment."
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?"
"Julian?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up."