Dark.
Thump, thump.
Heat.
Thump, thump.
Burning, rapid pulse.
Garak could finally see. Out of breath, he was chasing after an adversary wanted by the Order.
"It's imperative that you that you bring him in, Elim." Tain's voice taunted him. Garak maintained focus on his prey. His determination enabled him to catch up and tackle the escapee, but as he wrestled to subdue his opponent, instead of a shadow he was now wrestling with his wife. Ziyal looked at him with such a ghastly expression he had to stumble to turn away from her. Suddenly, he was surrounded by angry mob of Bajorans and Jem'Hadar. His heart sank and then his whole body ached when he turned back to Ziyal to discover her holding a fussing infant.
"Ziyal!" He cried out to her, but she didn't acknowledge him until he moved closer. Her wide and terrified eyes shot back and forth from him and the violent crowd.
"Elim …" Her voice shaky and panicked.
She reached for him, still cradling the wailing baby. The crowd was closing in and his instinct to protect his family materialized a Starfleet issue phaser rifle set to kill in his grasp. He mowed down countless frenzied bodies with fervor. For a moment he considered how barbaric he perceived this behavior.
After his arms became tired and weary, Tain's voice returned, "You really don't believe you can save her, do you?"
What felt like ice pierce his chest. His father walked up from behind while the crowd suspended their assault.
"You were always such a feeble and sentimental boy, Elim. What possessed you to fall in love with Dukat's progeny? Perhaps you don't even love her. Have you finally become such a broken man that you're now a rapist?"
That struck a nerve. Garak attempted to strike Tain in the head with the stock of the rifle but it went through him like the ghost he was.
"They always will be in danger, Elim! Not even a man as foolish as you can deny that."
Before Garak could retort, a Bajoran woman attempted to lunge and stab the baby, Ziyal evaded the attack, the woman cried, "Cardassian concubine filth!" and started at Ziyal again but failed to reach her as Garak caught the woman by the collar and felt a rush of satisfaction by hearing her choke.
A cacophony of sadistic and bloodthirsty cries erupted from the mob. A Jem'Hadar grabbed Ziyal from behind and she countered by shoving her free thumb into his eye. Garak finished him off with the phaser. The crowd rushed at them with weapons and Garak continued his frenetic firing as his father spoke to him once again.
"This is futile. Eventually that phaser rifle will run out of plasma and how will you protect your family then?"
"You're dead, Tain! You're not even real!" Garak's resolve was starting to weaken and he fought back with all he could muster.
"That may be, but your wife and child are very much alive and real… for now."
Garak heart began to fester with fear. "What would he do? He couldn't keep up his incessant fighting forever, even with Ziyal's help. Though he didn't necessarily look at death fearlessly, he accepted it as an inevitability. Suffering and torture he had already endured but his wife would be subjected to the worse kinds of horrific act of wild, racist, and sadistic people- Cardassian and Bajoran. The infant sent an ear-piercing screech and Ziyal huddled down and braced it close to her -sobbing and crying out for her husband. Garak felt his heart twist into cold shards, "Ziyal" he reached for her then Tain's voice assaulted him again.
"Kill them."
Something akin to a firework snapped in Garak's mind.
'A single shot into their brainstems. No pain. No suffering. Merciful compared to what those people would do.' Images ran through Garak's mind, images of rape and other violent, sickening acts. Tain was right.
"Do it, Elim!"
Garak felt tears well up as he witnessed the crowd closing in.
"There's not much time left!" Tain exclaimed.
Garak swallowed, a tear escaped his eye as he positioned himself behind Ziyal who was still sobbing on the ground.
"I'm so sorry, my dear flower." He choked. "None will live after this."
"Hurry up and do it, you sentimental-"Tain transformed into a Founder, "Cardassian bastard!"
Garak hesitated and in a waving succession the mob were suddenly caught in a massive freeze. Garak looked up at them dumbfounded. He glanced down, Ziyal and the baby were gone.
"NO! Damn you! He's mine!" Cried the Founder who was deteriorating halfway back into his liquid state before also being frozen, leaving behind a grotesque deformed statue.
A man weaved his way around the frozen crowd toward Garak. A Cardassian? No, his neck collar ridges were too small and undefined and no Cardassian had hair that shaggy. The man came closer and Garak could make out Cardassian features including a pronounced neck jeweled with an adam's apple that reminded him of Dukat. Then an atmosphere of warmth blanketed over him, the warmth that only Ziyal granted him. Then realization came upon him.
'Well, so much for keeping the gender a surprise.' Garak thought before finding himself transfixed in a pair of ice-blue eyes identical to his own. Garak stood as frozen as everyone else and then the man chuckled, slightly shook his head with a friendly expression. The man brought his index finger up to Garak's nose and pressed it like a button and in a moment of bizarre change of mood, bumped Garak's head with his palm. He repeated, progressively more intense until Garak closed his eyes and opened them, transported back to his safe home with his wife's protruding belly assaulting his cranium.
Garak heaved a great sigh before pulling himself off his wife's lap. Ziyal blinked her eyes open and yawned.
"You were finally sleeping; I didn't want to wake you." Ziyal explained with tired and droopy eyes. Garak groaned and palmed his face to bring himself to reality further.
"Not all sleep is restful, my dear." He mumbled. She smiled and placed her hands on his shoulders.
"Then why not try again?" Garak relented and allowed his wife to bring him back down into bed. They'd been married for three years and only now his anxiety was causing him nightmares. Welcome to parenthood indeed.
They lied in a light embrace facing each other, similar to how they spent their first time alone together. Ziyal ran her hand through his hair to get him to look at her. Even after experiencing a soul-destroying place as a Bajoran concentration camp she still had the ability to be affectionate. He loved that most and in return he'd let her look into his eyes until she couldn't keep her own open anymore. As they both started to slip into slumber Garak placed a tentative hand on Ziyal's abdomen where he felt his son's restless moving.
'Thank you.' Almost immediately the movement stopped. Garak smiled slightly, Ziyal's love for him still astonished him and now she was housing a little person that was of them both.
And with that, Garak joined his little family in a needed afternoon nap.
A/N- Yes, Quailek Tain is their son. He'll be recurring in my stories and hopefully I will get to writing up to when he's reached full adulthood and get to the reason he takes the name "Tain". I'm a very unorganized person so that's the reason why my stories will jump around. Garak/Ziyal is a controversial ship and I am unapologetic and even defensive about it. Ziyal deserved happiness (she was SO in love with this guy!) and Garak deserved some love so I'm one of the few that will conjure up and post my "Freudian filth". Happy reading!