AN: HEY THERE! So this is my first story I've ever written. I've always wanted to start writing fanfiction, but I've never really had a coherent plot line thought, but now that I have had one, I have to act on it. I'm sure there will be mistakes and discrepancies, but please bear with me as I want to improve! Constructive reviews are appreciated! Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, I am simply a smol child with an OC to share.

"Well, you'd best not do too much strenuous activity, but I'd say give it a week and you'll be back to normal." I turned back around with another hypospray for my patient, a slightly disgruntled Bajoran who was ready to get back to the planet.

"Alright, last set," I turned the Bajorans head slightly to administer the hypospray.

"And all done," I smiled at him. He briefly nodded then left abruptly. "Friendly fellow," I thought to myself, as I began to clean the infirmary. My day had consisted of resetting two bones, treating several colds and analyzing and comparing several sample of tissue for a personal experiment.

"Sisko to Bashir," the commander's voice came over the comm.

"Here sir." I replied, wondering what he could want.

"Please report to my office,"

"On my way!" I closed the comm signal and left the infirmary. I moved through the station past the promenade and up to Sisko's office.

"Sir, you wanted to see me," I sat down in the chair opposite his desk.

"I just wanted to inform you that there is a personnel ship coming in with more Starfleet, and that request you put in a while ago for more medical staff has come through. You'll be getting a fully trained doctor to assist in your duties. You can expect her starting duty tomorrow." Sisko was twirling the baseball on his desk looking expectantly at me.

"Tomorrow? Isn't that a little soon to start duty? When is she arriving?"

"She's arriving tonight, but she explicitly asked to start as soon as possible, so tomorrow if the mornings slow, you can take her for a tour."

"Yes sir," I rose to leave, "is that all,"

"Yes, goodnight Doctor."

I rose and exited his office. On my way back to the infirmary, I admired the design and architecture of the station. Some might say it was cold and dull, but I found the dark hues comforting. The long arching pylons and curved walls, I found it all quite magnificent. My commbadge interrupted my architectural musings.

"Dax to Bashir,"

"Here,"

"Julian, we're all meeting up at Quarks for a drink, want to come?

"Sure, be right there." I promptly turned around and headed for Quarks.

Quarks was loud that night. There was a Klingon ship docked on the upper pylon, and all the Klingons had come down to Quark's for some blood wine. I sat with Miles, Kira, Jadzia, and Worf, celebrating a long day over. My head was pounding from the noise.

"Julian, up for a game of darts?" Miles asked, expecting an affirmative answer. We always played darts.

"No, I'm fine, honestly I'm just a bit tired today."

"Alright then, hey Ensign!" Miles went off chasing some ensign to play darts with.

"I think it's time for bed, what do you think Worf?" Jadzia interjected. I remembered the days I spent pining for her attention, loving the way she smiled, the way she walked, her self confidence and ability to make friends everywhere. I really thought I had a chance. Then Worf came along. He was obviously the better candidate, I couldn't say I wasn't happy for the both of them.

"I believe it is time for rest." Worf replied, rising and holding Jadzia's hand.

Kira started to get up too. "I think it's time for me to turn in as well, I've got duty early in the morning," Kira looked at me expectantly.

"Oh no, don't worry about me, I'm going to have to round up Miles anyway, I promised Keiko I'd have him back by 22:00."

The three bade me goodnight. It was about 21:30. I reckoned I had about 15 minutes before I had to collect Miles from his dart game. I would enjoy the time to myself, the white noise of the bar calming my senses as I watched people pass by. My eyes wandered over the establishment, taking in the many people there, human, Klingon, Bajoran, some Starfleet, civilians, all mixed together and socializing. These were the least interesting people to observe, they had no interesting stories to try and guess. No they wouldn't do. My eye caught sight of a single Starfleet uniform on the top deck of the bar. It was an engineering officer, female, and she was drinking alone, looking slightly out of place and uncomfortable. Come to think of it, I didn't think I had ever seen her on the station before. She must be one of the new crew, I would have to introduce myself at some point.

"But not tonight," I said to myself. I had to go get Miles and save that ensign from a hard loss. "Miles it's almost 22:00, I'm going to head back to my quarters, you've got about 15 minutes before Keiko wants you back."

"Thanks Julian. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Miles." I started to leave the bar, but not before taking one last look upstairs at the new officer. I needed to remember her face so I could say hello someday. I left the bar behind and went to my quarters to sleep off the day.

"The time is 06:00" The computer chirped, far too loudly for the early hour. I rolled over and rose to start the day.

"Raktajino and a bagel with blueberry cream cheese," the computer complied. After," the requested food materialized instantly in the replicator. Sipping my raktajino quietly, I began browsing through the daily reports. There wasn't much scheduled for today, the usual Bajoran services held in the temple, an odd birthday here and there, nothing unusual. Suddenly, I remembered that I was getting a new medical colleague today. The thought of a new face around the infirmary was nice,someone to trade theories with and discuss scientific breakthroughs. It was going to be an interesting experience. I glanced at the time. It was nearly 07:00, and I wanted to be a little early so I could help the new girl adjust as well as possible. I quickly disposed of my empty dishes, got dressed and left for the infirmary.

As I came up to the infirmary, I noticed that the lights were already on and I could hear what sounded like someone quickly shuffling back and forth, a few muffled curses reaching my ears. As I entered, I was frozen in place, appalled by the scene in front of me. Several test tubes were shattered on the floor, accompanied by a young woman feverishly picking up the pieces and running to dispose of them. Several medical instruments were scattered across the floor. She clearly had not noticed my entrance, as she continued to mutter under her breath.

"Stupid, clumsy, goddammit, this is your first day Lizzie," She suddenly yelped out in pain as one of the glass shards pricked her finger. I shook off my initial shock and rushed forward to help. The woman, "Lizzie," looked up in surprise as I helped her up and lead her to an examination table. Picking up a dermal regenerator, I examined her wound, noticing her long slender fingers, the hands of someone used to delicate work, the hands of a doctor. I came to the conclusion that this was my new colleague.

"I assume you're my new crewmember. Julian Bashir, Chief Medical Officer on the station. What's your name?"

"Dr. Elizabeth Lancaster, I'm dreadfully sorry for the mess, really, I'll clean it up sir," She looked embarrassed and worried about my reaction.

"It's OK, we can clean up together, what happened before I came in?"

"Well I'm just still adjusting to the time difference here, so I was just exploring the infirmary, getting to know it before work started, and clumsy me just ran into the shelves, and everything started falling, and oh, I didn't see you come in, I'm so sorry, I know it's my first day, this won't happen again sir," she rambled. I was almost finished with her hand.

"Really, it's OK, and you can call me Julian. Was your self-guided tour satisfactory despite its abrupt end?"

"I'd say so, I got the lay of the land, I haven't really learned my way around the station as a whole though. And please, call me Lizzie," By this time, the dermal regenerator had done its job, and the previously damaged skin was now back to it's milky white color.

"There all done. If you'd like, we can spend the morning taking a tour of the rest of the station after cleaning this up, if you're up to it." I asked. She seemed slightly confused, as though expecting a different reaction. Her face softened when she realized I was serious.

"Yeah sure, that sounds great." We started to pick up the pieces of glass more carefully, in order to avoid more injury. Light conversation filtered through the infirmary as I filled her in on some of the recent happenings on the station. The mess was quickly cleaned up, and we departed the infirmary.

We started on the promenade, and passed by Quark's and the Bajoran temple. Lizzie was very interested in the local culture, I would have to introduce her to Kira. Our conversation grew deeper, and I learned about her two brothers at home on Earth, how she was the only person in her family who didn't want a command position in Starfleet. Both her parents were admirals, and the brothers were in the Academy themselves. She had wanted to be a doctor her entire life, and had only graduated a few years ago. She had been on assignment on a small ship in the Beta Quadrant, until being reassigned to Deep Space 9. Our conversation was cut short by my commbadge.

"Sisko to Bashir,"

"Yes sir?"

"Doctor, we had a meeting scheduled for 14:00. It's now 14:15." My eyes widened as I remembered the meeting the Commander and I had planned to discuss upcoming medical protocol on the station. I nervously looked at Lizzie. I could tell she was trying to smother a giggle.

"Umm, yes sir, I'm on my way now, I have the new Doctor here, is it alright if I bring her with me to see Ops?"

"Sure, just try to be more punctual next time," the Commander signed off. I turned around and looked at Lizzie. She was still trying to hold in the giggle. I glared at her, and started to walk to the nearest turbolift.

Upon arrival at Ops, we were greeted by Jadzia and Kira. We all decided to meet later for drinks and welcome Lizzie fully. I could see Sisko in his office, looking out the window at the wormhole. Lizzie and I climbed the stairs and waited for entry.

"Come in," Sisko turned around and took a seat in his chair. "Well, looks like you've adjusted well, Dr…."

"Lancaster sir, and yes, I had a lovely tour of the station with Dr. Bashir." Lizzie turned to me grinning.

"I'm glad. Doctor, I think we may need to reschedule our meeting, I have another meeting planned with Odo for safety protocol changes on the station in a few minutes. Nice to meet you Dr. Lancaster." Sisko dismissed us, and we started to go back to the infirmary.

The day was slow as a whole, but I appreciated it because it gave me a better chance to get to know how Lizzie worked. We had about two cases of the common cold, which were dealt with quickly, and one 2nd degree burn on an ensign from engineering who burned himself on a plasma relay. She had a cheerful, yet gentle bedside manner, which was a good quality in any doctor. At last the day was done, and we were left alone, discussing what was going to happen tomorrow.

"So, we might need to rearrange some of the things in here for optimal efficiency, if you don't mind," Lizzie gestured to my office which had several padds of my personal experiments and recent medical papers.

"Well I'm sure we can make some arrangements. We have a desk on its way, is there anything else you might need?"

"No, I think that's good." She turned away, busying herself with the rearrangement of some of the nearby tools. I quietly took up reading a recent medical paper on the possibilities of trans-species skin grafting. The article was interesting, and posed plausible theories that intrigued me.

"Say, Lizzie, have you heard of trans-species skin grafting?"

Lizzie turned around. "I've heard of it, but I've never fully understood how the graft would work without having a full collapse of the nerve endings. Why?"

"There's been a new study from Starfleet Medical, just found it interesting."

"Alright, save for me, okay?" She gently smiled at me then turned back to table where she had transferred her focus to a pile of padds outlining station protocol. A peaceful calm washed over the infirmary. Before, the quiet was somewhat lonely, but the new presence, however hushed she may have been, made for a warmer and comforting quiet. She certainly was an interesting person. Within the few hours I had gotten to know her, I had seen several different side of her personality, ranging from panicked, to curious, to this tranquil serene currently exhibited. The delicate features of her face reflected concentration as she attempted to cram all of the information on the padd into her head. Clearly, someone was not well-versed in the practice of planning ahead, such as going over the protocols on the shuttle to the station in question. Amused, I tore my attention back to the padd in my hands.

Our amicable silence was interrupted by the comm system.

"Dax to Bashir, Julian where are you and Lizzie? We were going to have drinks?" Jadzia's voice piped over the comm. It sounded like she was already at Quark's. Lizzie and I looked at each other, eyes widening. In our focus, we had completely forgotten about the plans we had made earlier with everyone. It was nearly 20:00!

"On our way!" we both shouted at the comm system, hurriedly putting away our things, and quickly leaving the infirmary.

AN: Well that wasn't too bad I think. If anyone is concerned, I do have an idea of the direction this will take. I'm not really great at this yet, so I'm not sure what kind of publishing schedule you can expect to see, but I will try my best to do another chapter soon. Reviews are appreciated! 3