Chapter Three

Unnatural

"How could you set them up like that?" Julian roared at Miles, who had let loose the entire story as well as learning what he had been trying to tell her. She could understand why he never told her before, why no one knew before and it was immoral - in their eyes and the law because of Khan's tale - and she was more shocked than angry.

Julian Bashir, the man she thought she knew over the last three years and was getting married to next week, was genetically engineered. Just...like...Khan.

"We didn't set them up!" O'Brien protested as he spoke of how Julian's parents came to apologize for their actions and words, not realizing that it wasn't their son they had been speaking to - and therefore let it spill that they had his DNA resequenced as a child, unexpectedly telling it to Dr. Zimmerman and Miles with him. Miles had made haste to tell the man involved first before the doctor took action. "They just happened to walk in while the program was running. Zimmerman thought it would be a good idea to test the program's ability to cope with an unexpected situation."

"And you let them GO! You let them stand there and make fools of themselves while the two of you sat in the back room and laugh?!"

Jadzia had enough of this. "Okay, you two, this is enough! The both of you wish it hasn't happened, but it HAS," she ground out, wishing it never happened herself because she knew how much Julian cared about his entire career now - and them. But he was not the only one at stake; his parents were implicated in this.

"I'm sorry, Jadzia," Miles said to her with a bow of his head before looking back up at Julian. "But now we've got a problem." That problem was not only the fact that his life was in danger - it was the dark secret behind it. Which she wanted to know now more than ever.

But her fiancé was being stubborn. Now that was the last thing she expected. "I don't want to talk about it."

She was tired of this being kept a secret. She wasn't leaving him for this, but she would leave him if he did not tell her unless he wanted to risk everything. "Julian, I've just about had it with this! Zimmerman is going to file that report unless you tell us!" she shouted, her heart hurt more than everything else. "'Dr. Bashir is unsuitable for computer modeling because of his genetically enhanced background'," she quoted, not funny at all.

"Suspected genetically enhanced background," Miles corrected her, then turned back to his friend. "Do you know what's going to happen when he files that report and gets it to Starfleet Medical?"

He slowly turned back around, grim and knowing, nodding slowly. "There's going to be a...formal investigation. Which will lead to my eventual dismissal from the service."

O'Brien had not wanted to believe it, but now he was beginning to see it as she did. "Then...you're..."

"The word you're looking for, Miles," he said coldly, "is 'unnatural', meaning 'not from nature'. 'Freak' or 'monster' will also be acceptable."

He sat down across from them but did not look at any of them, especially her. She was hurt more than before, wanted to comfort him now and sit beside him, hold him to her, but he didn't want it. Miles seemed to sense it and shook his head. But she couldn't stand him feeling sorry for himself, debasing himself for what he was; she would not call him those words he put out.

"I was six; small for my age, a bit awkward physically and not very bright. In the first grade when the other children were learning how to read and write, use the computer, I was still trying to tell a dog from a cat to a house from a tree. I didn't really understand what was going on, but all I knew was that I wasn't doing as well as my classmates. There were so many concepts they took for granted that I...couldn't begin to master. And I didn't know why. All I knew...was that I was a great disappointment to my parents. I don't remember when they made the decision, but just before my seventh birthday, we left Earth for Adigeon Prime."

He had been scowling bitterly the entire time, and it was now that a slight smile began to form. "At first, I remember being really excited at seeing all the aliens in the hospital, and then they gave me a room and...began the treatments - and my entire world began to change."

Jadzia took her time to take in his learning and mental disabilities as a child - and only six years old without the time to watch him grow and improve naturally - disappointing his parents and understanding why, and then his whole life changing over months of illegal treatments. "What were the treatments, some kind of DNA recoding?" Miles asked.

Julian laughed and scoffed at the same time, briefly. "The term is 'accelerated critical neural pathway formation'. Over the course of the next two months, my genetic structure was manipulated to accelerate the growth of neuronal networks in my cerebral cortex...and a whole new Julian Bashir was born." Now he was speaking as though he were high and mighty, and did not deserve to be that way. "And do the both of you want to know how they changed me? My mental abilities were top priority, of course. My IQ jumped five points a day for over two weeks, followed by improvements in my hand/eye coordination - stamina, vision, reflexes, weight and height. Everything but my own name was altered in some way. And when we returned to Earth, we moved to a different city." He moved from the chair to the window and looked out at the stars.

"I was enrolled in a new school using falsified records my parents obtained somewhere. But no longer was I the slow learner; I was the star..." His face fell into its original grim state. "...and a fraud, as far as I am concerned. I never once looked back after the treatments, but the truth has remained with me."

The hell he was a fraud. She and Miles both knew that because they knew him well than just this change in his DNA living with him since a young age. He was not a fake; this change in his configuration ordered by his own parents did not give him the ambition and compassion that truly made him more human than he was. She was looking directly at him while the chief lowered his eyes; Julian was softening up, but he was still doubtful.

"Starfleet Medical won't see it that way."

DNA resequencing of anything other than birth defects was illegal, therefore barring the being from serving or practicing medicine, but - "There hasn't been a case in a hundred years," Jadzia said fiercely. "You don't know for sure how they will take this, Julian."

"Oh, that's where you're wrong," he snapped. "I'll be banned from the service."

Miles was not ready to give up, and neither was she. He stood with her so they both stood over him; he was still sitting down before the window, defiantly lifting his chin at them like a stubborn child. "There MUST be something we can do; we can't just give up!" O'Brien insisted, but Julian stood and turned his back on both of them.

"There is something I can do: resign before Dr. Zimmerman files his report."

"Oh, Julian!" Miles exploded, fed up with this now, but not any further than Jadzia's fury at the man she loved giving up without a fight. This was not the Julian she knew to quit just like that.

"Julian, you are not!" she started furiously, but he held up both hands for them to quiet.

"Miles, Jadzia, it's over. I always knew this could happen, and now it has. Jadzia," he said, turning his attention on her now, calm at her righteous visible anger, "I love you more than anything in the universe, and that will never change. But now that you know what I really am, maybe it's for the best we did not get married now that I am to resign my commission. I won't be chasing after you anymore; I just want you happier than you are with a ruined, unnaturally enhanced freak like myself."

He leaned over and gave her one last kiss, which she willingly but begrudgingly accepted before pulling away and ordering him to get out of her quarters, and for O'Brien to go with him. She wanted to be alone now and cry her heart out.

~o~

"I think you're making another one of the biggest mistakes of your life, letting that woman go," Miles told him as soon as they were outside his now ex-fiancée's quarters. But Julian was done with trying to be stopped; his mind had been made up, and he had never been more rational than he was now.

"I've made my mind up, and now I'd like to be alone, Miles," he said before walking away from his best friend.

His mind was warning him that it agreed with Miles, that he was walking away from the best thing that ever happened to him, but how could he have a future with Jadzia while his career and life were going down the drain because his secret was getting out? He could not keep his decision from his parents now, knowing where this would lead - but he would gladly take it like a man.

Just like Miles, Richard was not going down without a fight. "We're not going to just take this lying down, that's for sure," he was saying as he paced back and forth while Julian bitterly sat beside his mother. "I'll arrange for legal counsel. We're going to fight this all the way to the Federation Supreme Court. And Jules," he said angrily when he saw his face, "you'd better change that attitude right now if you want to hang on to your career. Even hang onto that woman of yours, who I personally think you made another mistake breaking off the wedding with just for this." Now he sounded like O'Brien, and so did Amsha.

"Jules, listen to your father," she said softly. "He's trying to help you."

Just like he TRIED to help him in the past. He jerked from her tender touch. "Neither of you are listening to me. I don't want this dragged through the courts."

"We're a little beyond worrying about your wants, Jules," Richard said warningly. "An even more serious problem here that we have to stop the whining and concentrate on coming up with a new plan."

He huffed. This was it, what he expected his father to say. "A new plan," he spat. "Let's come up with a new plan - that's the way this family has always worked, isn't it? We don't face our problems, but come up with new plans. Don't like your job? Move onto the next one. Don't like the law? Well, find a way to get around it. But whatever you do, do not accept responsibility." His mocking of the lacking in the family made Richard advance on him and Amsha shift a distance away.

"All those gifts, all those accomplishments, and you still want to behave like a spoiled child!" his father shouted. "Well, you better grow up right now or you're gonna lose everything."

"You mean, YOU'RE going to lose everything!" Julian fired back. "You're going to lose your only real accomplishment in this life: me. You said before to Captain Sisko and to Jadzia in front of me that I'm your legacy, your proud gift to the world. Well, Father," he sneered, "your gift is about to be revealed as a fraud...just like you." Talking to him like that was a mistake, but he did not care. He said it as it was, and even Richard knew that, but he was still holding himself together.

"I'm still your father, Jules, and I will NOT have you talk to me like that."

"No, you were my father. Now, you're nothing more than my architect. The man who designed a better son...to replace the defective one he was given. Well, your design has a built-in flaw. It's illegal."

Richard looked like he wanted to strike him very much; well, if he wanted to, then go ahead. "You're so smart," he hissed, "you know so much you can sit there and judge us, but you're still not smart enough to see that we saved you from a life of remedial education and underachievement!"

He wouldn't have known that, when Julian was only six years old! "You didn't give me a chance to let me grow and judge me by then. I might have fallen behind, but I was six years old. You decided I was a failure when I was only in the first grade. If you ask me, Father," he said, raising his voice as he stood and circled his failure of a father, "you are the one who doesn't understand. I stopped calling myself Jules when I was fifteen and found out what you did to me. I'm Julian!"

"What difference does THAT make?!"

"It makes ALL the difference, because I'M different! CAN'T YOU SEE?! Jules Bashir died in that hospital because you couldn't live with the shame of a son who didn't measure up!"

Richard was done arguing with him, so he turned his back on his son, but his mother was not done and now had her turn, heartbroken and angry at the same time. "That is not true," she gasped sharply. "We were never ashamed of you - never."

He did not want her soft, patronizing words. "I'm sorry, Mother, but the truth is -"

She interrupted harshly. "You've never had a child, and I don't know if you will ever have one with her because you can't stand how we raised you ourselves." Her lined face softened with her voice. "You don't know what it's like to watch your son and watch him fall a little further behind every day. You know he's trying, but something is holding him back. You don't know what it's like to stay up every night worrying it was your fault, that you might have done something wrong during pregnancy, that you weren't careful enough - or maybe there is something wrong with you. Maybe you passed on a genetic defect without even knowing it."

Something inside him cracked even though he lowered his eyes as his way of telling her that he was agreeing with her. He wasn't a father, he didn't have children and had no idea what the burden was truly like, and he could now imagine Jadzia feeling this way if she were in Amsha's shoes. To want a child only to find something wrong when you didn't expect it...maybe he DID judge his parents too harshly.

Richard, hearing his wife's speech, softened and turned around, trying to get her to stop now, but she insisted it was important. "You can condemn us for what we did, say it is illegal or immoral, but you have to understand we did not do it because we were ashamed...but because you are our son, and that we loved you and still do."

~o~

She had considered taking off her ring, but when she did the first time, her hand felt naked - like she'd lost Julian forever, which she might as well had. They were so close to being happy and starting the rest of their lives together, but he was going to hand over his resignation soon and then she'd never see him again. Where would he be now that he was going to Captain Sisko now? Knowing him, he planned to leave quietly.

She was in Ops, having not told Kira about any of this - yet - when she looked up and saw him come in, then quickly looked down to avoid eye contact. It was childish, but necessary. She just wanted to avoid as much contact as possible, until he left the station for good.

But then, Ben's voice sounded on her comm badge, requesting she come into his office. She frowned, and when she reached the door, she had just joined Julian there; Ben must really want her there because she was important in Julian's leave. They were not alone, either; both his parents were there as well as the hologram of Rear Admiral Bennett, Judge Advocate General of Starfleet.

"Your parents came to see me this morning," Ben said to Julian. "They explained everything about your genetic background. I contacted Admiral Bennett a short time ago."

"And we've reached an agreement, Doctor," the admiral spoke, "which will allow you to retain both your commission and your medical practice."

"And I'm going to prison."

Jadzia couldn't help but slap a hand over her mouth. He - Julian's father was accepting responsibility and going to prison to save his son's career! She couldn't say entirely it was brave, and Julian was as shocked as she was. "What?!" they both exclaimed.

"Two years," Richard Bashir answered. "It's a minimum security penal colony in New Zealand."

Two years minimum was hardly enough to prevent Julian from stepping in, but the decision had been made by both his father and the rear admiral. "He pleads guilty to illegal genetic engineering in exchange for you to stay in the service."

"No!" Julian burst. "I'm not going to stand here while my father -"

"Julian." That was the first time Richard had spoken his son's name in respect for who he was now, not as he was back then. "Listen to me one last time. This is MY decision; I'm the one who took you to Adigeon Prime. I'm the one who should take the responsibility for it."

Julian was still considering backing out on this, but Amsha begged him to let his father do this - for him. Jadzia stayed behind with Ben as they both watched the exchange, even listen as Julian asked if two years was too harsh, to which Bennett shook his head. "Two hundred years ago, we tried to improve the species through DNA resequencing, and what did we get for our trouble? The Eugenics Wars. For every Julian Bashir that can be created, there's a Khan Singh waiting in the wings - a superhuman, whose ambition and thirst for power have been enhanced along with his intellect. The law against genetic engineering provides a firewall against such men, and it's my job to keep that firewall intact. I've made my offer, and you've accepted. Mr. Bashir, you may report to my office at Starfleet Headquarters once you've arrived on Earth." With that, the hologram linked out, leaving Amsha to embrace her husband, and Julian looking down with guilt on his face.

"You want to be in here with them, old man?" Benjamin asked her softly. She nodded, knowing this was also time for her and Julian to make up now that they both knew they were not over. But she also wanted to be there for him when he said good-bye to his parents now that his father was going to prison. Sisko walked up to Julian and assured him to take his time, leaving them in what was left of peace.

Jadzia accompanied them to the airlock, where she was surprised to learn that there were visiting hours at the facility and that Julian would be able to visit more often now that they made up. Richard would be going away, but that meant Amsha would be back and attending the wedding of her son next week, still on. Her new mother-in-law would be there, but it might not be enough without her father-in-law. And her own family was being arranged to come to Risa.

She looked back at Julian, seeing the contented smile that he had made peace. But that left one more thing. "Oh, Jadzia, why are you still with me?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, baffled.

"Well, I'd made it loud and clear that I'm unnatural and a freak, called off the wedding because I thought I was going to resign, but now that things are going back in the direction as before -"

"Oh, stop that. I love freaks with intellect," she said proudly, walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him long and passionately even in front of those passing by them for the airlock. "How about I show you how much I love you...later?" she asked when she pulled away, winking.

"Give a chance to reveal to me your biggest secrets with me now?"

"Oh, don't turn that onto me! If I'd had any, I'd let you know." Another kiss was shared.

"Doctor Bashir, I Presume" is one of the best episodes I've ever seen and where we finally learn what our good doctor really is. Alexander Siddig really did enjoy this revelation in that time. :) It was intense, emotional, and yet warm and heartfelt.