Fools Rush In by Teal
Chapter Seven
Dr. Bashir sat scrutinizing over the test results in front of him. He had done so many different blood tests on Jadzia, it was dizzying. And yet, something still didn't add up. He just couldn't put his finger on it. But, he felt he must be staring right at it.
"Excuse me, Dr. Bashir?" The duty nurse interrupted.
Julian looked up at her, still thinking about the figures before him. "What is it?"
"She's waking up, doctor."
"I'll be right in."
Julian walked into Jadzia's recovery room. He watched her quietly as she stirred awake. Her eyes blinked several times before he saw the realization of her surroundings begin to settle in.
"Julian?" She asked surprised. Her voice was sounded rough and medicated.
"Yes, you are on DS9. How do you feel?"
"Hmm." She said, rolling over and trying to sit up against the back of the bed. "Strange." She paused again. "No pain."
A serious and shaken expression crossed his eyes. 'Well, that's a good thing isn't it?"
She nodded. "For so long, though, it was the only thing that reminded me that I was alive." She wasn't being dramatic, but her statement had a startling affect on Julian. It disturbed him to think of pain as a friend.
"Do you remember what happened? How you arrived here?" He began to run his scanner over her head and down her torso.
"Yes, but it was so much like a dream. And it didn't make much sense while it was happening."
"Could you explain?"
"Well, the rescue is a bit fuzzy, you know. But, I could have sworn my rescuer was Worf, and that was what threw me off." She shook her head and lay back against her cot.
"Why is that strange to you?" Julian probed, wondering at her reaction.
Jadzia seemed to freeze in place. She opened her eyes and stared aghast at Julian.
"That's not at all funny, Julian." Pain and anger were evident in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to upset you, or be funny. I really don't understand."
Jadzia stared incredulously at her doctor. He seemed genuinely shocked at her reaction.
"Julian, when I was captured Worf had been dead for over a year. Is there something you want to tell me?" She sounded sarcastic, and then her face changed entirely. "What is it Julian? What's happened?"
Bashir stopped cold. He could see her sincerity and it chilled him. Then, as if someone had lifted the blind on an extremely sunny day, the truth of it all dawned on him, and he winced from the pain. How stupid, how utterly stupid he had been. He had wanted her to be Jadzia so much, along with the rest of them, he had stopped looking in the right direction. He hadn't checked everything, had he?
Slowly, almost unwillingly, he lifted his medial tri-corder once again and ran it over her cerebral cortex, and then along her body. Methodically, he walked over to the computer terminal in her room and down loaded the data. The analysis took only seconds, and there it was. The missing answer. The "why" to his question of "how". Julian's shoulders slumped down and he hung his head in defeat. What a fool he was.