Lovely assemblage of stories and vignettes depicting a developing relationship between Julian and Garak. Covers a lot of ground and includes a variety of content – very serious (internalized homophobia), romantic (eating popcorn while watching holovids), humorous, etc. I should also mention that it’s an AU, so for example we have Julian having a religious background which has scarred him – specific religion deliberately not mentioned, BTW – and we also have a Julian who’s not genetically engineered.
Excerpt - [From “Truth or Dare”]
“Garak.”
“Yes?”
“We need to see if you can lie. I’m going to ask a question even you can’t be bothered by.”
Garak raised an eyeridge. “Are you very certain, Doctor?”
“I am. What book did you tell me you were planning to read this evening?”
To Bashir’s credit the question was harmless. To Garak’s dismay, despite his intent to name The Never-Ending Sacrifice, he replied, “The Plains of Ek-Kel.” Thrice-cursed voles, he felt far more exposed than he would have if he’d been sitting in Bashir’s office completely unclothed.
“Alright,” said Bashir, despite the situation being anything but all right, “the lk’mar-7 is obviously still affecting you. We’ll try again soon.”
Garak decided that the doctor simply had to read Pudan Kolet’s famous essay, “On True Leadership,” which perfectly explained why representative government was heavily problematic at best and disastrous at worst. He didn’t really expect Bashir to change his opinion, though it would be a pleasant surprise indeed. No, he held the more realistic hope that Bashir would understand the logic behind the Cardassian view, even if he could not subscribe to it personally.
It took far longer than it ought to have for Garak to find the essay because some imbecile had used a horridly inaccurate transliteration of Cardassi characters for Pudan Kolet. Insulting, really. He’d just downloaded the essay to the padd for Bashir’s convenience when the doctor returned with his scanner.
“What book did you tell me you were planning to read this evening?”
“The Never-Ending Sacrifice.” Lying had never been so gratifying as it was in that moment.
“What station are we on?”
“Federation Starbase Nineteen.”
“Under whose command?”
“Captain Picard.”
Bashir nodded and set aside his scanner. “You clearly have no problem lying.”
“Have I ever told you about the time I hunted a pair of targ?”
“I don’t believe you have,” replied Bashir with a little grin. “Where was this?”
“Qo’noS, of course.”
“Only the best. Let’s get you a monitor; I’m sure you’re ready to leave.”
“Oh, no, Doctor, I really had no other plans for the evening.”
“Who’s to say I didn’t?”
They both knew that Bashir would always cancel plans to insure his patients’ health. All the same, when Garak replied, “I thank you for prioritizing my wellbeing,” he said it with sincere gratitude. He had managed to get through the episode without sharing a single damaging secret and as minimal a level of humiliation as he imagined possible.
Bashir truly was an excellent doctor, and, as humans saw relationships, quite a good friend as well. In Cardassian terms Garak supposed they’d forged their own alliance of sorts even if the doctor hadn’t realized it.
He answered Bashir’s targ hunting questions with a spontaneously generated set of parallel lies and was in good enough spirits to accept the remote medical monitor without complaint.
Metadata
Title: Ties That Bind (Series)
Author: AuroraNova
Year Posted: 2015-2016 (in progress)
Approx. Word Count: 35,000 (for series)
Chapters: 19 (works)
GB - Slash or Platonic: Slash
My Rating (1-5): 5
Keywords: WIP, vignettes, dating, religious intolerance, internalized homophobia
Addendum: There are lots of good stories in here, but in my notes I have that “Safe” is a particularly good one. Looking at it again, yes, it is. Julian suffers, and Jadzia realizes that Garak is the one who can help him through it. “Truth or Dare,” where Garak is exposed to a truth serum, and ends up having to be medically monitored by Julian, is also pretty great. (That’s where the excerpt above comes from.)