"Rumour is a dangerous thing, light and easy to pick up, but hard to support and difficult to be rid of. No rumour ever dies that many folk rumour. She too is somehow a goddess."

(Hesiod, Theogeny.)

Janet Thompson had been released to her quarters early on the previous morning, but also given strict instructions that she wasn't to return to work for at least another day and a half. Julian longed to ask after her, so badly that his chest ached. But with every attempt, the muscles in his throat clenched with a pain like they'd been crushed under solid ice.

He'd been reading the letter that his good friend Felix had attached to the latest one of his holosuite programmes. "Something to cheer up my very best customer," it read. "For when they finally let you out for some R and R. So, are you telling the sexy counsellor all about this spy obsession of yours, or haven't you gotten around to that part yet?"

Bashir thought about sending a reply - something about already having more "R and R" than he knew what to do with. He continued to scroll through the list of characters, storylines, and occasional tips on how to get away with stealing the arch villain's girl. And there, at the very bottom, was a note that made him catch his breath and want to smash the padd against the farthest wall. "P.S. I heard about what happened. Tough break."

Movement on the edge of his vision snatched his attention away. Nurse Thompson stood a mere three or four strides distant, entirely engrossed - a little too engrossed, he could not stop himself from thinking - in an inventory of assorted medical supplies.

She sensed him watching her, and turned to glance his way. "How are you feeling, Sir?" she asked curtly.

"I'm fine," he said. "You?"

There was a momentary flash of anger behind her honey-brown eyes. Bashir felt the pain of it hit him in the chest, just as if she'd reached out and punched him. But when she spoke, Janet's voice was more hurt than scornful. She looked away. "You should be resting, Sir." After a final uncomfortable pause, she turned back to frown at her half complete inventory.

A sound at the door, and he looked in time to see Counsellor Dion standing in the entrance, hands concealed behind the arch of her back. Oh, wonderful. A too familiar weight returned to the base of his stomach. He set his friend's letter aside, hoping that she hadn't noticed their tense exchange, but at the same time suspecting that she had.

"How do you feel?" she asked, settling into a nearby chair as soon as the dark-haired nurse had excused herself from the room.

"Terrific. Never better."

To her credit, she gave no sign of having even noticed the hostility in his voice. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"I didn't do it."

"O-kay." She nodded, again giving nothing away. "Then let's talk about this man you think you saw."

"I didn't think I saw him. He was there." All the anger he'd been keeping inside rose suddenly into his voice, and he could hardly keep himself from shouting. "He was sitting in my room, just as surely as you're sitting there now. Oh, what's the point?" Head lowered, Bashir locked his fingers tightly against each other and banged the resulting two-handed fist against his knee.

"Julian." Her voice cut through the drawn out silence. He wanted to snarl at her to leave him alone, stop condescending to him, or at least let him know what she really thought. But instead, he pushed his frustration all the way to the pit of his stomach, and forced himself to look directly into her eyes. Popular opinion already said that his kind were unstable, antisocial, prone to sudden emotional outbursts. He'd given her enough fuel to burn him with for one day.

Once she was certain that she had his attention, Lorraine Dion continued. "Julian, you should know. Your friend Dax checked every corner of your quarters. She couldn't find anything to suggest that anyone had been there - aside from yourself and Nurse Thompson of course. And Odo was just as unable to find a match for that composite you provided. Is it possible…?"

"No it is not possible that I imagined the whole thing," he interrupted, fairly spitting the words. "That's what you were going to say, isn't it? That I made it all up? But what reason could I possibly have for hurting Janet? I'm a…"

He looked down at his hands, and suddenly realised that they had balled into a pair of tight fists. Releasing a little tension, he noted the series of slender crescent-shaped marks upon his palms. "I didn't do it," he whispered to the silent air. Even if no-one else believed him, he had to speak the words - if only to hold on to the idea, and keep from doubting it himself.

"Athena." Waiting at the airlock, Nathan Hayes clasped the new arrival's hands in both of his own. "It's good to see you again." His mouth tensed into the shape of a smile, which never quite spread to the rest of his face.

"It's good to see you too, Nathan." He looks older, somehow. Or possibly battle-worn. Doctor Athena Nikos sensed her own muscles tense in response to her friend's tight half smile. Her posting at Starfleet Medical had been almost entirely one of research and hospital work - trials of a very different kind. She had not had the same level of frontline experience as many of her more active colleagues.

"You know why I asked you here?" Hayes began.

"I got most of it from your last communication," she assured him, noting how instantly they'd stepped onto the much safer ground of professional discourse. Hayes had sent her a letter on the previous morning, outlining much of what had happened and requesting as politely as urgency would allow that she take the earliest possible chance to meet him on Deep Space Nine.

It had not been a surprise. She already knew a little about the young man who'd originally held Doctor Hayes' post, and there was barely a single person in her department who had not heard of the circumstances surrounding his dismissal. As they continued along the corridor, she noted the expression that had crept onto her own face - a frown that was strangely reluctant to disappear.

"Now," she said. "Tell me everything that I haven't already heard."