ladydrace | 100 Things Challenge, #5! (Reply)

Working title: "Bashir Junior"
Fandom: Star Trek, DS9.
Pairing: Garak/Bashir.
Other stuff: Please ignore the stupid title. It was purely for filing purposes.
Word count: 11.200 words so far.

This WIP is old. Old as balls. Not even kidding. I started it back in 2008 and somewhere in the middle of 2009 it kinda dried up. I've been poking at it lately, because really, all it needs is the grunt work of typing it up. I have the plot laid out on my head. I just need to grit my teeth and goddamn get to it, already. Also, it'll probably end up being at least 20k words. God help me.

Notes:
It's a post-series story, set roughly 25 years after WYLB. Garak had (foolishly perhaps) decided that not keeping in touch with Bashir was best for all of them, and while he regrets this decision somewhat, he's lost as to how to change things. Meanwhile Bashir went back to Earth, got married, had a son and started teaching at the Academy. His wife later died, but Bashir still stayed, mostly for the sake of his mother and later his father when he ended up a widower. He tried contacting Garak repeatedly, even though he never got any reply. Garak kept up to date with Bashir's life, but is still taken utterly by surprise when suddenly one day, Bashir's son turns up on Cardassia Prime, falling practically right in Garak's lap. Thus begins a new era of Garak's life, once again a Bashir being the one bright spot in Garak's gloomy existence.

But from what the son has to tell, it looks like maybe Garak is going to have a second chance to make things right with the father.

Snippet:

[...] the reappearance of Doctor Bashir in Garak's life made him immediately reconsider all his goals in life, and while it was unsettling in a very basic way, it was also utterly irresistible. In his lowest moments Garak even mused that he'd suffered enough for the sake of his home, and that he deserved something for himself. A thought that would have been as close to heresy as anything could get in a world beyond religion in the time of Tain. Garak usually blamed the his exile and his lengthy exposure to soft hearted Federation values for that line of thought.

However, it didn't change the fact that Garak wanted. He coveted something for his own personal happiness. And while the thing he wanted might not be what he'd expected to want at this time in his life, the quest for personal gain was as Cardassian as anything. Tain's first love had been power and influence. Garak had shared that goal for a long time, but now, in a world being formed all over again from the rubble of shattered buildings and the ashes of burnt crops, it seemed like such an empty thing to want. And in reality, Garak had a lot more power than he really wanted. With one word he could have pretty much anyone found, tortured or killed, no questions asked. His organization was small, but he ran a tight ship.

But by dawn, after a long night of reflection over a clinically written data chip, Garak was prepared to pass it all on to the next ambitious minion if there was a chance he could have this one thing for himself. Just this one thing. Deciding not to face his empty bed, Garak pocketed the chip again, got up stiffly and started getting ready for a new day.