Epilogue

"I have something you might be interested in, Doctor," Quark told him in a conspiratorial whisper as Bashir leaned against the bar waiting for Miles to come in for their game of darts.

"If it's anything illegal, I'm not," Bashir said firmly.

"Would I offer you something illegal?"

"Maybe not; you'd be afraid I'd tell Odo," Bashir considered. "What is it, then?"

"Old Earth 2-d spy adventures."

Bashir felt a flicker of interest, but shook his head. "Not worth it at the price you'd charge."

"But look!" Quark insisted, holding out a case with a colored picture.

Bashir gasped softly and reached for it, cursing himself a moment later for displaying too obvious interest. "Where did you get these?" he whispered, staring in disbelief at the image of Miss Gayle on the cover. *

Quark smiled mysteriously. "I never give away my sources. But I have ten of them, each with several adventures."

"How much?" Bashir demanded.

"One strip of gold-pressed latinum…each."

"Each?" Bashir asked in disbelief.

"Old Earth 2-Ds are hard to find," Quark said defensively. "Take it or leave it."

"I'll take it," Bashir decided quickly. "Put it on my account. I assume they'll play in the holosuite?"

"Observer only."

Bashir nodded. "Load the first one for me after my game with Miles. I suppose you're still going to charge me the usual rate for the holosuite?"

"I do have a business to run."

Bashir snorted softly, but said nothing as he spotted Miles coming toward him.

He was so distracted that he forgot to throw his aim off a little, winning easily three games in a row and absently wishing his friend "better luck next time" when Miles refused a fourth game.

What he had been puzzling over most was the problem of how he and Sisko could have interacted with Steed and his companions if they were indeed only characters in an old Earth 2-d television program. Perhaps the stories were based on real life…but then how did the actress who played Miss Gayle on the show resemble the real one so closely? Makeup and special effects weren't that good back in those days…not good enough to fool his enhanced eyes.

Had the whole adventure been his imagination; some kind of hallucination or elaborate holosuite program?

He could ask Sisko, he supposed; but the idea sounded too crazy even to him.

He chuckled suddenly as an absurd thought struck him; maybe the answer was that they were all just characters on some television show.

One thing became clear in his mind as he watched the first episode play out in black and white in front of him; despite minor inconsistencies in the names of characters, that was John Steed.

He spent all his spare time in the holosuite over the next few days, watching as Steed changed companions several times over the course of thirty or so episodes, and the show began to be produced in color. He wondered idly if Tara King was related in any way to Dr King — and if so, what he thought of her not only involving herself in Steed's "escapades," but actually being an agent herself.

Then came an episode in which captured Russian spies were seemingly vanishing into thin air from the supposedly escape-proof Oldhill Monastery. "Some sort of transporter beam, maybe?" Steed mused. Looking up, he seemed to directly meet Bashir's gaze…and winked.

Bashir gasped softly, not missing the implication. It all had happened, and Steed was sending him the message that the Department of Temporal Investigations had allowed him to keep his memory.

But even aside from the apparent contradiction of real life versus a television show, how had Steed known he would see the program at all, let alone this particular episode, unless…

Bashir smiled slowly. Perhaps their paths were destined to cross again.

The End

* Illustration for this scene can be found on my DeviantArt account.

A/N: I was debating doing this epilogue and leaning against it, because of the "apparent contradiction of real life versus a television show," when I saw the episode featuring the Oldhill Monastery. A transporter beam was such an obvious conclusion for anyone who knew about one that I couldn't resist, and decided the paradox didn't matter for a story I don't count as having "really" happened anyway.

It did occur to me recently that it might work with alternate universes… The characters from both shows might be just TV characters in our universe, but real people (with my alternate history changes made) in their own, and Quark somehow got hold of DVDs from our universe… I don't know how the "real" Steed from their universe could wink at Bashir in the TV show from ours, though! Barbie

P.S. Yes, I do have a sequel planned…if I ever come up with an ending for it! B(FC)

I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know! (Note that the spelling of some Avengers characters' names has been changed intentionally.)

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 or Avengers alternate histories, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie