Julian sat in his office, staring blankly at the computer display. Numbers and symbols flashed as the computer calculated the latest information he'd fed it; Julian's thoughts were miles away.

Two weeks from now, he and Ezri would be married. They'd agreed that no matter what, they would hold to that date. If necessary, they would ask Captain Data to perform the ceremomy, or Captain Sisko, even if it had to be under duress.

Julian wondered idly if the station was actually going to be under attack again. The thought of an enemy that he couldn't see made him uneasy.

Now, with Aisling's disappearance and the arrival of Moira, things had gotten even weirder.

Ezri's research into the psionic abilities of the faerie was a bit of a non-starter; there simply wasn't enough reference data to work with. She'd tried bouncing a few ideas off of Julian last night, but nothing new had shaken loose.

The computer beeped the completion of its task, and Julian shook the fog from his head. He refocused his attention on the display and tapped a few commands into the control panel.

The display spiralled into a visual display of the virus Julian was researching; Julian's brow creased, and he leaned forward. Something about the display was wrong, something had changed. Julian stood as he realized what had happened.

"Computer, begin medical officer's log," Julian commanded. He gave the stardate and began his observations, beginning by restating for the log the purpose of his experiment. A virus on Bajor had infected a major surplus crop, and Doctor Bashir was one of the consulting experts. Over the course of a week, Doctor Bashir had observed the virus run its course on the grain samples he'd had brought to his lab.

Today, approximately one week later, Doctor Bashir detected airborne samples of the virus that no longer seemed suited to attacking grain.

"It's mutated," Doctor Bashir muttered darkly. "But why?"

Hours later, Bashir was muttering intensely as the computer display flashed current calculations. He'd already run the numbers in his mind, but he wanted every step to be thoroughly recorded.

The simple grain virus from Bajor had savagely mutated, and Julian had a nasty hunch that it wasn't a natural mutation and that it wasn't an accident.

"You gonna stay here all night?" Miles said from behind Bashir, and the doctor nearly jumped out of his skin.

Bashir whirled around and stared at his friend for a moment before he realized what was going on.

"Oh, I'm sorry Miles," Julian said, and his face fell. "We were supposed to meet at the holosuites tonight, weren't we?"

Miles shrugged and offered Julian a bottle of wine.

"What's this?" Julian asked as he spun the label.

"A gift from Captain Picard the last time he was on Earth. It's from his brother's vineyard," Miles said.

Julian shook his head and offered the bottle back to O'Brien.

"No, Miles, I couldn't," Bashir said in an attempt to return the gift.

Miles pinned Julian with a look.

"Now, Julian," Miles said with a wicked gleam in his eye. "You didn't think I'd let you drink that alone, did you? Come on, there's a bottle of whiskey waiting after that's gone."

Julian half-turned back to the display before he shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but I really shouldn't. I'm close to catching something here. I just don't know what," Julian muttered.

"Are you going to find it by reaching into the computer and plucking out the answer?" Miles asked wryly.

Julian sighed and shook his head again.

"I suppose not," he relented.

Miles grinned and said, "Atta boy."

Julian laughed as he puttered around, closing down the Infirmary for the night.

As they were leaving, O'Brien elbowed Bashir in the ribs and quipped a joke that made Bashir cackle with glee.

XXIII END CHAPTER XXIII

Author's Notes: Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this far!! I'm so glad to be on this journey with all of you. Super big shout out to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, or favorited!! You guys are the best.