"Keiko's dead."

A moment of silence passed before Chief Engineer Miles O'Brien managed a confused, "What?"

"There was an accident," Colonel Kira Nerys said softly, for once allowing emotion to seem into her normally matter-of-fact tone. "Doctor Sirota and what was left of the expedition returned about a half hour ago. We're still investigating, but from what I can tell, they encountered a plant that's evidently poisonous to humans. Keiko was among the ten who didn't make it. I'm sorry, Miles."

Miles just stared at her.

"That – but - it can't be true," he said, frowning at the floor as he tried to collect his thoughts and keep the tidal wave of emotion that was threatening to overwhelm him at bay. "I just talked to her two hours ago."

"I'm afraid it is. I can arrange for you to speak directly with Dr. Sirota, but – "

"No!" Miles exclaimed violently, knocking over the chair he had been sitting in as he glared Kira down across her desk; he was too angry to realize he didn't remember standing up. "She's not dead!"

"Miles – "

"She's not! I'll prove it to you!"

Kira sighed heavily as the automatic doors shut behind O'Brien's retreating figure; she had no doubt he was heading for the infirmary. Shutting her eyes for a moment, Kira collected her thoughts before leaving her office, bracing herself for her already-long day to get longer.

A loud CLUNK sounded outside the crew quarters, bringing Miles out of his memory-induced haze. The message that fractured his world at the seams had come a week ago, and yet it still seemed as if it had happened only minutes ago. Even under the best of circumstances, receiving the news that someone you love, especially someone as close to you as your wife, has been killed is a difficult thing to which to adjust. Grieving is not something a person can get over in a couple of days, Quark had told him while serving Miles' fifth whiskey the night he had gotten the news. His recovery had only been made worse by the orders that came in the next morning – an epidemic had quickly spread across Vulcan, leaving the Council of Elders no choice but to ask Starfleet for help. Starfleet, being humanitarian in nature, had dispatched the Defiant immediately, uprooting the daily lives of Deep Space Nine's senior staff without warning. Five days later, three of which involved working long hours to solve a series of extremely complicated problems with the Vulcans' main computer network (the remaining two had been spent traveling from DS9 to the planet itself), the Defiant's crew was wrapping up the last couple of loose ends caused by the sudden spread of the epidemic.

Miles rubbed his eyes tiredly before resuming his mindless staring at the ceiling of his bunk bed. Being a small warship, space aboard the Defiant was limited; this led to the sharing of quarters by members of her crew. The crew quarters were furnished, but just barely so – the room was a small rectangle with one set of bunk beds to each wall that ran perpendicular with the door; the remaining wall directly across from the doorway housed a small sink, mirror, and sonic shower. It was a sort of unspoken agreement that when Miles and Doctor Julian Bashir were sent on long missions together as part of the team that they'd bunk together; this time was no different. Miles, as usual, had taken the bottom bunk to Julian's top one (after all, Julian was the lighter one of the pair), and the quarters were being shared by Ensign Taurik (one of Miles' engineers) and Lt. Andrews (the temporary chief of security who was totally unbothered by being the only woman in a room full of men). It was rare, however, because of the shift schedule that all four officers would be in the room at once; Taurik and Andrews worked the shift opposite that of Miles and Julian. Due to the events of the past couple days, however, Miles barely took notice of those around him. If his mind wasn't on the task directly in front of him, it unerringly wandered to Keiko's death, followed closely by thoughts of Molly and Yoshi, who had been left on DS9 in Garak's care until his return. No matter how he looked at it, it boiled down to the solid fact that Miles was miserable.

Miles jumped slightly at the sound of the crew quarters' door opening – he hadn't realized that he had drifted off among his thoughts again – before tilting his head at such an angle that the door would be visible. Because of the low hanging metal shelf that made up the base of the top bunk, all Miles could see of the newcomer were black pants and black boots.

'Very helpful,' Miles thought sourly to himself. 'As long as they're quiet, I don't care who it is.'

However, Miles' wish to be left alone was not meant to be. The Chief Engineer closed his eyes, intending to feign sleep, but at the sudden movement of his mattress, sat up, totally startled, banging his head on the top bunk.

"Ow!" Miles exclaimed, rubbing his head, at the same time glancing down at the space next to him…which was now being occupied by one exhausted-looking Julian. "…the hell?"

Julian, who hadn't even bothered to change out of his uniform, was lying face down in Miles' pillow. Turning slightly so that he could peek one eye toward the Irishman, he mumbled a quiet, "what?"

"What?" Miles asked, still stunned by Julian's sudden appearance. "What d'ya mean, what? What the hell d'you think you're doing?"

"Sleeping," the Doctor replied, even quieter this time.

"You can do that in your own bunk," Miles grumbled. "I'm using this one."

O'Brien's reply was met with silence, prompting Miles to glare at Julian's inattentive form.

"Julian. Julian. Julian," Miles said, shaking the brunette's shoulder slightly.

"Go 'way. 'M sleepin'."

"Julian," Miles tried again; he was becoming more discontent by the second.

Julian merely let out a soft snore. Sighing, Miles looked up at the metal frame of the top bunk as if to ask, why me? Throwing the sleeping Julian another glare, Miles sighed again, realizing that he really had no choice other than to turn onto his side (his aim being sleeping as comfortably as possible while pinned between the doctor and the wall) and close his eyes once more, hoping that sleep would claim him soon. Dark thoughts of Keiko swam around Miles' brain like a ship of old being tossed around in the middle of a hurricane for the next hour before the chief engineer finally succumbed to darkness.

The buzzing of the computer's alarm jolted Miles awake from a dream about plants with tentacle-like appendages similar to the snakes in the Gorgon Medusa's hair, and it took him a couple seconds to realize the plant wasn't what was constricting his movement. Blinking a few times, Miles felt rather than saw Julian snuggled up against him, the doctor's right arm thrown across his chest and one leg tucked between Miles'. Groaning tiredly, Julian rolled (with what Miles' equally exhausted brain interpreted as reluctance) off the bed and stood up, heading for the mirror. Miles pulled the covers closer around him, already missing the warmth and Julian's presence. However, as the computer chirped for the fourteenth time that it was 0430 hours (followed by Julian's tired and cranky, "I get it, okay? Shut up already!"), Miles decided that it was way too early to think about anything other than falling back to sleep. With the sounds of Julian tiredly shuffling around the cabin, Miles drifted back to sleep.

The alarm rang once more at 0600, and this time, Miles actually had to get up. (As he did every morning, he silently thanked Julian for remembering to reset it; without the reminder, he easily could have slept the day away.) He shuffled around the cabin getting dressed and ready to start his day (and his duty shift), almost running into Lt. Andrews who dashed in to grab something off her bed before hurrying back the way she had come. Everything about this morning was normal; his routine was the same as it was every morning since the beginning of this mission. O'Brien let his thoughts wander as he briefly checked his reflection in the mirror before walking over to make the bed. It wasn't until he was tucking in the corners that it all came flooding back – Julian had been in his bed this morning! And not only that, he had been there with Miles. He remembered the warmth, the sense of peace in his recently chaotic world that came with Julian's presence –

'No.' Miles stopped his train of thought as he finished making the bed. 'I had to have been dreaming. Julian didn't share the bed with me, and I sure as hell didn't enjoy it. I'm just…really tired and imagining things. Pull yourself together, Miles.'

Shaking his head, at the same time vowing to get more sleep tonight, Miles left his quarters, off to start the last day of work on Vulcan. Arriving home to DS9 couldn't come soon enough.

Miles lay in bed, eyes closed, beginning to drift off into sleep. The crew of the Defiant had finished with aiding the Vulcan authorities by about 1600 hours, leaving the day shift time to relax before the night shift came on and began the return trip to Deep Space Nine. None of the day shift crew would deny that the past six days had been extremely exhausting, and therefore Miles found himself completely justified in having a replicated whiskey or two before sleeping. One or two turned into four or five, and before he knew it, Miles was feeling extremely content and sleepy as the room spun lazily around him. The soft woosh of the door to the crew quarters sliding open jolted the redhead from his reverie, but he rapidly discovered that sitting up was a bad idea. Too drunk to care that much about it, Miles settled for talking to the newcomer while remaining in bed.

"I got a bone to pick with you, Bashir."

The footsteps, which had been getting closer to Miles' bunk, stopped dead.

"Oh? And what bone with that be, Chief? A humerus?"

"Very funny."

"Some might even find it humerous," Julian replied, eyes twinkling as he sat down on the edge of Miles' bunk to slip off his boots.

"Hardy har har."

"I thought you'd appreciate it, even in your drunken state."

"I'm not drunk! I'm fine!" Miles insisted, eyes narrowing as Julian turned around to face him, now sitting crosslegged on the end of his bunk. "How d'you even know I was drinking?"

"I can smell the whiskey," the brunette replied, smiling.

"Doesn't matter. It still doesn't get you out of explaining why you slept here last night."

Julian took a deep breath and stretched, as cat-like as possible given the confines of sitting up in the bottom bunk, before stretching out next to Miles, all the day's stress seeming to melt away as he did so.

"Oh no you don't," Miles said, pushing on Julian's shoulder. "We're not done here."

"'M busy," came the muffled reply.

"Doing what?" Miles shot back, eyes narrowed and tone clipped.

"Sleeping."

Miles opened his mouth to reply as his comm. badge chirped. Tapping it, he let out a gruff, "what?"

"I just wanted to let you know that all tools have been packed away and that the plasma grid is no longer fluctuating, sir," Taurik's voice seemed to float in the mostly-empty room.

"Good. That should do it 'til I get up. Good night, Ensign."

"Good night, sir."

Unclipping the comm. badge from his pajama top (prior to it chirping, he had forgotten that he was still wearing it), Miles reached through the bars of the bunk beds and placed it on the little side table by his head. As he rearranged himself in bed intending to sleep, he realized that Julian hadn't moved, and by the sound of his soft, even breathing, wasn't going to move anytime soon. Knowing that he'd feel guilty if he pushed Julian off the edge and onto the floor, Miles rolled onto his side, back to the wall, and shut his eyes. No matter how much he didn't want to, he smiled slightly as Julian rolled over and snuggled up against him. It didn't take more than a minute after that for Miles to fall into a deep sleep.

Miles stirred slightly, allowing himself to slowly reintegrate himself into the land of the living. Stretching, he realized this time that there was no way he was dreaming – there was definitely a weight on his chest, and it was coming from Julian having draped himself almost fully on top of the Chief Engineer at some point during the night. Realizing that there was no way he could get up without disturbing the doctor, he quietly asked the computer for the time.

"The time is 0940 hours," the computer's smooth voice answered, seeming overly loud in comparison to the extreme quiet.

As Miles frowned, wondering why the alarm hadn't woken either of them up to start their duty shifts, Julian stirred, burrowing his head further into Miles. Taking a deep breath, he blinked, moving so that he could lock eyes with the redhead.

"Morning, Chief," he said, smiling sleepily.

"Julian, why didn't the alarm go off?"

"Didn't I tell you last night? Kira said we could sleep in. We're not needed til noon," he replied, shutting his eyes as he laid his head back down on Miles' chest.

"No, you neglected to mention it. And we need to talk."

"We can talk later. Sleep now."

"No. We're gonna talk now, and if I have to drag you out of bed, so be it."

"There's no need to get mean, Chief," Julian said with a half-scowl, sitting up.

"Then maybe you should explain to me why you've spent the past two nights sleeping with me!" Miles exclaimed, surprising both Julian and himself at the force behind his tone.

Julian was quiet for a moment, head cocked slightly to one side in that way he always did while thinking, before answering the question.

"You looked like you needed it."

"I looked like I needed what, exactly?"

"Some comfort. A friend, even."

"Friends don't normally sleep in the same bed, Julian," Miles shot back pointedly.

"Sure they do," he replied, moving closer to Miles; he was now stretched out next to the chief engineer, arms crossed behind his head, looking up at the frame of the top bunk. "I mean, what is a relationship but an extension of a previously existing friendship? God knows I've thought about it before. You can't tell me you haven't."

"What?" Miles asked, unable for the life of him to come up with a more eloquent response.

"You can't possibly tell me that you haven't considered the possibility of us being more than friends," Julian said, leaning up on one elbow to better see Miles' face.

Miles expression seemed to freeze in place, mouth half open in what Julian could only interpret as half shock, half confusion. Shaking his head, smiling, Julian shifted closer to the chief engineer. The movement seemed to spur Miles back into motion, sputtering.

"What – Julian – "

"Miles, shut up."

With that, Julian closed the distance between himself and the chief, kissing him soundly. At first, Miles didn't react at all – Julian took it as an extremely good sign that he wasn't pushed away immediately – but after a couple of seconds, for some reason unknown to Miles himself, he began to kiss back. Julian inched himself closer to Miles as the redhead wrapped an arm around the smaller brunette, the kiss continuing for another minute or so. Breaking apart for air, Miles looked at Julian, who was smiling widely, eyes twinkling, and turned beet red.

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Why the hell does anybody do anything?" Julian countered, his smile turning less triumphant and more kind. "Because they enjoy it."

"I – well – yeah, that makes sense," Miles said softly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, still visibly embarrassed.

"Relax, Chief. We kissed. It's not the end of the world."

"Look, give me a moment to adjust, okay? This is – well – "

"I completely understand," Julian replied, smiling again as he placed one hand on Miles' shoulder. "This is new, and there's no reason to rush things. I'm not pressuring you into anything, and I – "

"Julian?" Miles interrupted.

"Yes?"

"Now it's your turn to shut up," he replied, and with that, pulled the doctor close and silenced him with a kiss.