Chapter Ten: Reconnecting

Sisko woke the next morning to the appetizing smells of the breakfast Bashir had just brought up. He sniffed appreciatively, pushing himself to his side, then cautiously sitting up, wincing only slightly as the sheet slid from his back.

Bashir looked up from his own breakfast with a smile. "Good morning, sir. Feeling better, I take it?" He set his plate aside and stepped to the side of the bed.

Sisko nodded. "Just sore." He waited patiently as Bashir felt his pulse and pressed a hand to his forehead to check his temperature.

"The fever's gone," the doctor said with satisfaction. "Are you up to eating breakfast?"

Sisko's nod was punctuated by a growl of agreement from his stomach that made Bashir grin. "I can feed myself this morning," he insisted.

Bashir merely nodded, uncovering Sisko's plate and putting it in his lap, tucking a fork in his hand before going back to his own breakfast.

"So, how did Mrs Jeffries treat you?" Bashir questioned when they had eaten in silence for several minutes.

Sisko shrugged, then winced as the action pulled at his back. "Better than most of the whites in this time; not as if she really thought I was human."

Bashir made a soft noise of sympathy. "I get the idea that she would be one of the easier ones to convert to abolitionism, but since she is only a hologram, I guess there's no real point in trying."

"No more point than patching up their wounds," Sisko retorted.

Bashir grinned. "That's entirely different."

"Is it? I wonder."

Bashir chuckled. "So, how do you like my 1860s getup?" he asked, gesturing toward his clothes as he changed the subject.

"Fine…but why the glasses? You don't need them, and it's not as if you have to keep anyone from recognizing you."

"No," Bashir admitted, lightly tapping the side of the gold frames, "but they look distinguished, don't they? At least, that's what Garak told me."

Sisko shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder how he'd dress my crew if they weren't in uniform all the time…I'm not sure I really want to know."

"Probably not," Bashir agreed, gathering the empty breakfast dishes and putting them on the tray for Mrs Jeffries to take downstairs when she came for them.

"I need to clean your back this morning, but we'll talk first; I'll have to give you laudanum beforehand, and it will probably put you out for several hours. But I can give you a small dose now if you need it."

Sisko shook his head. "I'm fine; it's so much better than it was that I barely notice it."

Bahir only grunted, recognizing what Sisko's level of pain still had to be and hating the thought of how bad it must have been for this to seem negligible.

"How long have you been here?" he asked softly, sitting beside Sisko on the bed in a manner that showed him in that moment to be more friend than doctor.

Sisko shifted slightly to face him. "I don't know for sure…it's easy to lose track of time when you're a slave. About two weeks would be my best guess."

"I'm sorry," Bashir said quietly. "I came as soon as I could, but holographic time isn't the same as real time…and it took me a week to find you after I got here."

"I know, Julian; you did the best you could," Sisko assured him.

"Yes…" Julian said absently. "So I came a day after you did, station time; since I took a week to find you, you would have been here about a week when I came. That means a day on the station is roughly equal to a week here — which means we shouldn't be expecting rescue in under a week or two, and possible a good deal longer. Miles is good, and if anyone can get us back he will, but even he can't work miracles in a day."

"Having you here is miracle enough for me; it's like night and day since you found me. If it wasn't for Jake and the others back on the station, I'm not sure I would care whether or not I was ever 'rescued.'"

"I could do worse than setting up as a doctor here," Bashir admitted. "But I don't think we really have to worry about staying here indefinitely; Miles and the others aren't going to rest until they find a way to get us back. And speaking of back…"

Sisko frowned. "I've just been thinking of something, Julian; you lost all the drugs you brought with you, right?"

"Yes."

"That means everything you've given me is holographic; how can you know it will do any good?"

"You feel better, don't you?"

"Yes, but —"

"I think you're forgetting that your injures are holographic as well," Bashir pointed out.

"With the safeties off, injuries in a holosuite can be quite real," Sisko said grimly.

"Then so can their treatment," Bashir suggested. "Come to think of it, I'm not sure it would be all that safe to use real drugs to treat a holographic ailment — though trapped in the programming like we are, I suppose even real things we brought with us are 'holographic' to some extent — and either way, a dose of antibiotic couldn't do you any harm." He frowned with the intensity of his statement, then shrugged it off with a slight smile; there was no point wishing for or debating the wisdom of using drugs he had no means of obtaining. "Regardless, as long as I see you're continuing to respond, I'm going to treat you with what I have and trust that it's doing as much good as you need it to."

Next chapter coming next week!

I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!

Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Deep Space Nine alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie