crowdog66 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crowdog66) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
doctor_tailor2011-12-08 10:01 am
crowdog66) wrote in doctor_tailor2011-12-08 10:01 am
Entry tags:
Fic: "Ovum" 3/?
Title: Ovum 3/?
Pairing: Garak/Bashir
Rating: R (so far)
Word Count: 1371
Summary: A response to the DS9 Comment Ficathon prompt over on LJ: "The thing about Cardassian biology is that like lizards, they have retractable penises. And when a Cardassian's penis retracts, he lays eggs from that place... Garak lays Bashir's eggbabies."
Notes: Set post-"The Wire". Normally I won't touch mpreg with a ten-meter pole, but something about the prompt in this case sounded like so much fun that I couldn't resist. :) (In other words, if you don't like the idea of guys getting pregnant (or at least carrying eggs), I hope you won't let it put you off the rest of my writing!)
WARNINGS: Unexpected pregnancy.
Part One here.
Part Two here.
*************************************
Garak didn't appear to notice. Smiling faintly, he started cutting lengths of silk. And after a span of three or four seconds Julian's medical reflexes kicked in and he resumed scanning, this time focusing his attention on the Cardassian's lower belly.
"I'm detecting four macrolecithal eggs, each four point seven centimetres in diameter, arranged around your pelvic orifice, two on each side. Each pair is located inside a… I suppose they're uterine bodies?" Of course Garak didn't supply an answer to that question, so Julian continued: "The yolks and vitelline membranes appear to be fully formed, with the chalazae and albumins in progress. I'm also seeing high concentrations of calcite in the surrounding solution, which suggests that shell formation will begin as soon as the major egg structures are in place."
"Well," Garak remarked, "that explains my unusual craving for Gatharian hiritha milk."
Julian nodded. "Hiritha milk is often prescribed during the early stages of —" The enormity of the thought momentarily stopped him dead in his tracks. Again. He slotted the scanner back into the tricorder but the motion was entirely automatic: his mind was fully occupied with the facts of the situation in front of him. "Garak…. you're…"
"Yes, Doctor, I am." A smooth sweep of one grey hand created another precise measure of blue fabric. Julian stared, waiting for him to say more, and when all Garak did was turn the bolt to gain access to more silk he reached out impulsively and caught hold of the older man's wrist. The gaze Garak turned on him was mild but Julian didn't miss the flash of annoyance there.
"But… how? I mean…" His mind was racing now, gathering every fact he possessed about the physiology of his lover's secretive species and weaving them into a coherent picture. "Cardassian women aren't oviparous."
The smile became a smirk. "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a woman."
"I…" He had to look away, momentarily sickened by the precipitous change in perspective: not by Garak, or what his body was doing, in fact this new paradigm was positively thrilling from a medical point of view, but… he hadn't known how deep the mystery went, and no matter what the personal implications he couldn't afford the luxury of shock. He brought his eyes back to Garak's face, which was still displaying a thin sliver of teeth very sharp and white, and said: "Nevertheless, you're pregnant. By me?" Garak just looked at him, and he blundered on: "I mean — it is… nobody else has…?"
"Made use of my ossek in quite the way you have?" Garak offered a disarming blink of blue eyes almost fierce in their intensity. "No, my dear, not recently."
Julian felt a blush appear high on his sharp cheekbones. He tried to sound clinical. "I'm sorry, but it's a necessary question. Of course the genetic tests will confirm — oh, damn it!" Some days it honestly wasn't worth opening his mouth.
Garak was standing perfectly still, studying him with that incisive gaze that seemed to probe more deeply than any tricorder scan. After a couple of seconds of watching Julian's face turn an ever-deeper shade of shamed red he sighed and put aside the laser cutter. "If it's any consolation, this is just as much a surprise to me as it is to you."
"It is?" He was assiduously seeking any telltale of falsehood, but — well, this was Garak, who could walk on virgin snow without leaving a single footprint behind, metaphorically speaking.
"It is." He'd looked down to place the cutter on the table, but now he turned his entire body to meet Julian's gaze squarely. Julian left his hand where it was, laid lightly but firmly on the back of Garak's hand. "S'tak p'rasstal is highly uncommon nowadays: Cardassian society takes a rather dim view of same-sex entanglements between men, and it's always been a rare occurrence even during those historical periods when males were in the habit of making use of each other as a matter of course." His gaze flickered to the left, only for a microsecond, and his broad shoulders twitched fractionally inside his thick tunic, but Julian caught it and read it as an indicator of profound discomfort. "It's also viewed as highly primitive — disgustingly so, in fact, a holdover from our animal forebears. If word of this gets back to Cardassia Prime my already tarnished reputation will take another precipitous nosedive, I'm afraid."
Julian inclined his head a little closer and widened his hazel eyes, tacitly evoking trust. "Is that the truth?" he asked quietly.
"Would you believe me even if I told you 'yes'?"
Now it was Julian's turn to sigh and glance briefly away. "I don't have much choice. I've never heard of s'tak p'rasstal — it certainly wasn't in the files Enabran Tain provided, and they're my main source of information concerning Cardassian physiology. And… well, the fact is, you're carrying four eggs that may or may not be fertile. I'll have to run further tests —"
"No." Garak's voice had also grown soft but the gleam in his eyes was as hard as diamond-light. "No tests."
"Not in the Infirmary," Julian agreed, still speaking gently but now infusing his voice with an undercurrent of steel. "In my quarters, tonight. Come by at 1930." Then, when Garak didn't respond, he set aside the tricorder to take both of the Cardassian's hands in his and hold them tightly. "I need to know. I deserve to know. And we have a lot to talk about, in private, where we won't be disturbed by a customer coming in."
Something in the iron mask of Garak's expression broke and opened, revealing sympathy and sorrow as subtle as the trace of a track left on ice. "Very well," he agreed with obvious reluctance. "But I warn you, you may not like the answers you find."
"I don't have much choice about that, either." He rubbed his thumbs over the cool twilight skin, feeling the tension that lurked in bone and tendon. "Do you need anything right now? I could have the Chief raise the temperature here in the shop —"
"Thank you, no," Garak responded politely. "That would only be likely to provoke questions, wouldn't it?"
Julian had to smile in spite of the gravity of the situation. How typically Garak! "Maybe some hiritha milk, then?"
"I've drunk enough of that already to float a Keldon class battleship." Garak's fingers finally offered answering pressure, briefly but warmly. "At the moment I have need of nothing, except time to finish this silk coat. The Tellarite who ordered it will be very displeased if it's not ready before his ship departs in five hours."
He let go of Julian's hands and started to step back, but Julian was, for once, too quick for him. He slid his left arm around Garak's waist and stepped right up against that stocky body, curved his right hand around the fine scales that adorned the line of Garak's jaw, and tilted the black-haired head back enough to press a kiss to the grey lips whose softness and strength never ceased to amaze him. For a second he felt Garak's entire body tense — this was an intimacy that Julian had never dared to offer him in his shop, where anyone could walk in on them — and he didn't go so far as to pull the younger Human close, but after a heartbeat he angled his head and responded to the caress with that barely veiled reptilian heat that always quickened Julian's pulse.
"It's going to be all right," Julian whispered when he finally drew back: "I promise." Without waiting for a response he released the tailor and picked up his tricorder and turned to leave, already wondering how he'd make that vow come true.
Garak made no attempt to stop him. He strode back onto the Promenade with shoulders squared and face impassive, hoping to hell that there were no empaths in the vicinity to pick up on the emotions he must be broadcasting at the top of his heart and mind:
I'm going to be a father…
[TO BE CONTINUED…]
Pairing: Garak/Bashir
Rating: R (so far)
Word Count: 1371
Summary: A response to the DS9 Comment Ficathon prompt over on LJ: "The thing about Cardassian biology is that like lizards, they have retractable penises. And when a Cardassian's penis retracts, he lays eggs from that place... Garak lays Bashir's eggbabies."
Notes: Set post-"The Wire". Normally I won't touch mpreg with a ten-meter pole, but something about the prompt in this case sounded like so much fun that I couldn't resist. :) (In other words, if you don't like the idea of guys getting pregnant (or at least carrying eggs), I hope you won't let it put you off the rest of my writing!)
WARNINGS: Unexpected pregnancy.
Part One here.
Part Two here.
*************************************
Garak didn't appear to notice. Smiling faintly, he started cutting lengths of silk. And after a span of three or four seconds Julian's medical reflexes kicked in and he resumed scanning, this time focusing his attention on the Cardassian's lower belly.
"I'm detecting four macrolecithal eggs, each four point seven centimetres in diameter, arranged around your pelvic orifice, two on each side. Each pair is located inside a… I suppose they're uterine bodies?" Of course Garak didn't supply an answer to that question, so Julian continued: "The yolks and vitelline membranes appear to be fully formed, with the chalazae and albumins in progress. I'm also seeing high concentrations of calcite in the surrounding solution, which suggests that shell formation will begin as soon as the major egg structures are in place."
"Well," Garak remarked, "that explains my unusual craving for Gatharian hiritha milk."
Julian nodded. "Hiritha milk is often prescribed during the early stages of —" The enormity of the thought momentarily stopped him dead in his tracks. Again. He slotted the scanner back into the tricorder but the motion was entirely automatic: his mind was fully occupied with the facts of the situation in front of him. "Garak…. you're…"
"Yes, Doctor, I am." A smooth sweep of one grey hand created another precise measure of blue fabric. Julian stared, waiting for him to say more, and when all Garak did was turn the bolt to gain access to more silk he reached out impulsively and caught hold of the older man's wrist. The gaze Garak turned on him was mild but Julian didn't miss the flash of annoyance there.
"But… how? I mean…" His mind was racing now, gathering every fact he possessed about the physiology of his lover's secretive species and weaving them into a coherent picture. "Cardassian women aren't oviparous."
The smile became a smirk. "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a woman."
"I…" He had to look away, momentarily sickened by the precipitous change in perspective: not by Garak, or what his body was doing, in fact this new paradigm was positively thrilling from a medical point of view, but… he hadn't known how deep the mystery went, and no matter what the personal implications he couldn't afford the luxury of shock. He brought his eyes back to Garak's face, which was still displaying a thin sliver of teeth very sharp and white, and said: "Nevertheless, you're pregnant. By me?" Garak just looked at him, and he blundered on: "I mean — it is… nobody else has…?"
"Made use of my ossek in quite the way you have?" Garak offered a disarming blink of blue eyes almost fierce in their intensity. "No, my dear, not recently."
Julian felt a blush appear high on his sharp cheekbones. He tried to sound clinical. "I'm sorry, but it's a necessary question. Of course the genetic tests will confirm — oh, damn it!" Some days it honestly wasn't worth opening his mouth.
Garak was standing perfectly still, studying him with that incisive gaze that seemed to probe more deeply than any tricorder scan. After a couple of seconds of watching Julian's face turn an ever-deeper shade of shamed red he sighed and put aside the laser cutter. "If it's any consolation, this is just as much a surprise to me as it is to you."
"It is?" He was assiduously seeking any telltale of falsehood, but — well, this was Garak, who could walk on virgin snow without leaving a single footprint behind, metaphorically speaking.
"It is." He'd looked down to place the cutter on the table, but now he turned his entire body to meet Julian's gaze squarely. Julian left his hand where it was, laid lightly but firmly on the back of Garak's hand. "S'tak p'rasstal is highly uncommon nowadays: Cardassian society takes a rather dim view of same-sex entanglements between men, and it's always been a rare occurrence even during those historical periods when males were in the habit of making use of each other as a matter of course." His gaze flickered to the left, only for a microsecond, and his broad shoulders twitched fractionally inside his thick tunic, but Julian caught it and read it as an indicator of profound discomfort. "It's also viewed as highly primitive — disgustingly so, in fact, a holdover from our animal forebears. If word of this gets back to Cardassia Prime my already tarnished reputation will take another precipitous nosedive, I'm afraid."
Julian inclined his head a little closer and widened his hazel eyes, tacitly evoking trust. "Is that the truth?" he asked quietly.
"Would you believe me even if I told you 'yes'?"
Now it was Julian's turn to sigh and glance briefly away. "I don't have much choice. I've never heard of s'tak p'rasstal — it certainly wasn't in the files Enabran Tain provided, and they're my main source of information concerning Cardassian physiology. And… well, the fact is, you're carrying four eggs that may or may not be fertile. I'll have to run further tests —"
"No." Garak's voice had also grown soft but the gleam in his eyes was as hard as diamond-light. "No tests."
"Not in the Infirmary," Julian agreed, still speaking gently but now infusing his voice with an undercurrent of steel. "In my quarters, tonight. Come by at 1930." Then, when Garak didn't respond, he set aside the tricorder to take both of the Cardassian's hands in his and hold them tightly. "I need to know. I deserve to know. And we have a lot to talk about, in private, where we won't be disturbed by a customer coming in."
Something in the iron mask of Garak's expression broke and opened, revealing sympathy and sorrow as subtle as the trace of a track left on ice. "Very well," he agreed with obvious reluctance. "But I warn you, you may not like the answers you find."
"I don't have much choice about that, either." He rubbed his thumbs over the cool twilight skin, feeling the tension that lurked in bone and tendon. "Do you need anything right now? I could have the Chief raise the temperature here in the shop —"
"Thank you, no," Garak responded politely. "That would only be likely to provoke questions, wouldn't it?"
Julian had to smile in spite of the gravity of the situation. How typically Garak! "Maybe some hiritha milk, then?"
"I've drunk enough of that already to float a Keldon class battleship." Garak's fingers finally offered answering pressure, briefly but warmly. "At the moment I have need of nothing, except time to finish this silk coat. The Tellarite who ordered it will be very displeased if it's not ready before his ship departs in five hours."
He let go of Julian's hands and started to step back, but Julian was, for once, too quick for him. He slid his left arm around Garak's waist and stepped right up against that stocky body, curved his right hand around the fine scales that adorned the line of Garak's jaw, and tilted the black-haired head back enough to press a kiss to the grey lips whose softness and strength never ceased to amaze him. For a second he felt Garak's entire body tense — this was an intimacy that Julian had never dared to offer him in his shop, where anyone could walk in on them — and he didn't go so far as to pull the younger Human close, but after a heartbeat he angled his head and responded to the caress with that barely veiled reptilian heat that always quickened Julian's pulse.
"It's going to be all right," Julian whispered when he finally drew back: "I promise." Without waiting for a response he released the tailor and picked up his tricorder and turned to leave, already wondering how he'd make that vow come true.
Garak made no attempt to stop him. He strode back onto the Promenade with shoulders squared and face impassive, hoping to hell that there were no empaths in the vicinity to pick up on the emotions he must be broadcasting at the top of his heart and mind:
I'm going to be a father…
[TO BE CONTINUED…]