Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
when molly is almost ten she finally hears enough rumours to ask “dad, if uncle odo is a policeman why all his friends like uncle quark and uncle garak are criminals?” and miles automatically finds himself saying “your uncle garak isn’t a criminal, he is just a tailor” and then spends the whole evening staring into the distance
Day 15 - Julian and Garak Babysit Molly and Kirayoshi
Miles asks Julian to babysit Molly and Kirayoshi, but unbeknownst to him Keiko asks Garak of all people! Both Julian and Garak are happy to find each other at the Obrein’s quarters while Miles seethes on his way out with Keiko to a dinner day.
It goes well. Julian eventually monopolizes Kirayoshi’s time, playing peek a boo and making him “fly” in the air. While Garak teaches little Molly how to make a good argument and essentially get her dad to do anything she wants! Like a good little spy.
Much to Garak’s chagrin, Molly also wants to “fly” and gets into a heated debate with Uncle Garak on why he should pick her up. And no, a backache is not a good reason.
i get wired. i book airline tickets. i write fic based on me getting swarmed by toddlers with plastic stethoscopes at work. now i’m supposed to sleep, brain.
Molly’s doll Lupi (pictured right from the episode Time’s Orphan) wears a shirt very similar to Garak’s shirt from his early appearances, with a vest overtop.
So uhhhh…. Garak makes doll clothes for Molly. That blue fuzzy vest the doll is wearing? Molly made it with his help. It’s rough work, but a good first attempt.
It started when Keiko brought Molly in to the shop because she was going through a growth spurt. Keiko and Garak talk about plants, and Molly is fascinated by Garak and all the clothes in his shop and how he mends her favorites and lets out the hems.
Garak actually loves kids. All of a sudden he and Molly are friends. Keiko thinks it’s wonderful, Miles thinks it’s Not Good, Julian is amazed and delighted.
it’s battle lines (st: ds9 1x13) and kai opaka gifts molly o’brien a necklace.
there doesn’t seem to be an in-universe explanation for this moment. but I like to think that opaka was predicting kirayoshi o’brien’s birth 2 yrs later.
I mean think about it. opaka’s contemplating prophecy when she arrives on ds9. preoccupied by it even. she’s barely said anything to anyone. responds but doesn’t initiate conversation. until she spots chief o’brien and makes a point of speaking with him. of giving him, a perfect stranger, a gift. for the daughter she shouldn’t know he has.
and my theory is opaka knows. knows that kira nerys will be the one to carry chief o’brien’s next child to term. that nerys will become a part of his family. another partner with him and his wife. another mother to yoshi and an auntie to molly.
but obviously she can’t say anything. after all, it hasn’t happened yet. so instead she gifts molly her necklace. it’s her way of blessing nerys’ family. nerys’ choices. opaka is saying I see you happy someday and I approve.
and that will mean everything to nerys. because as she tells bashir, opaka’s always been a symbol of hope to me. and hope is the driving force of nerys’ entire life. the search for hope in the darkness. for home and love and peace after a lifetime of war. and another war yet to come. and the eternal war inside.
a search that will continue thru the whole series. past the whole series.
and yeah, there was moment. when nerys was pregnant with yoshi and living with in the o’briens’ quarters with them. where miles would rub her feet. and keiko would bring her flowers. and molly would call her auntie. where she felt safe and loved and at peace.
only she didn’t think it was hers to keep. it was too unconventional. yoshi wasn’t hers. not technically. only by accident. only because nerys was the only option dr bashir had between them. nevermind how much miles and keiko insisted yoshi was hers. that they all were. she couldn’t trust it. couldn’t hope for it.
it was too terrifying.
so rather than embrace the hope of a family nerys tried to turn her back on it. let shakaar edon in as a poor replacement. let odo in only to be left behind.
not that those relationship’s didn’t have meaning. or didn’t serve a purpose. because they did. they were essential in nerys’ search for hope. they allowed her to love openly. to think about the future. what she wanted and what she needed. who she wanted. who she needed.
but neither shakaar nor odo where that person for her. because nerys had already found the people she needed. except that a lifetime of trauma leaves it’s mark and nerys wasn’t ready to hope yet. to open her heart all the way.
that is. until she’s visiting the o’brien quarters one day. watching molly chase after her little brother, yoshi. kirayoshi. kira yoshi. kira nerys’ son. or close enough. and molly has on kai opaka’s necklace. and it’s like watching the wormhole open for the very first time. hit by a force of wonder and love and understanding so strong it almost brings nerys to her knees.
because nerys wants this. she belongs here. and opaka knew. knew that nerys would end up here, with a grouchy engineer, a beautiful botanist, their sweet little girl, and their son. the 3 of their’s. with every fiber of her being nerys wants this little family.
only. the o’brien’s are leaving. the dominion war is over and miles was offered a new job teaching at starfleet academy. on earth. that he accepted.
and nerys can’t follow them.
because she’s the new commander of ds9. and because bajor is her home. she’s spent her whole life fighting to free bajor from the cardassian occupation. and she’s spent the last 7 years fighting to negotiate peace between the different factions on bajor. to administrate between bajor and the federation. and there’s still a lifetime of work to do.
and she can’t ask the o’brien’s to say either. it’s a little too late for revelations.
so she lets them go. even if does break her heart a little. because if anyone will understand freedom to choose the trajectory of your life it’s nerys. she’s not hte type to impose her hopes and dreams on anyone else.
so she let’s them go without a word.
but the thing nerys is forgetting. overlooking. is how terribly miles and keiko work on their own. their whole marriage has been a series of keiko and miles living and working apart. keiko goes back to earth. she moves to bajor. for family, for work, for safety. and each time she takes molly with her.
that is. until yoshi comes along.
well. technically it’s when nerys comes along and surrogates yoshi. and her fierce and protective and no-nonense personality fits seamlessly into keiko and miles’ marriage. she’s the buffer between them. a third viewpoint that can de-escalate their fights and out stubborn either one of them. she rounds out their rough edges.
edges that make an appearance back on earth. because I do not see miles enjoying teaching. not the way keiko did. he was always a reluctant substitute at best, so a full time professor? nah. miles is the type to get his hands dirty. to thrive on problem-solving.
and then there’s keiko. who felt so out of place as a botanist on ds9. until she created a space for herself. created a community with her station school. and nothing has really compared since that.
so this this time I think it’s keiko’s turn to make an executive decision. miles was happiest when he was working. keiko was happiest when she was teaching. molly was happiest when worf was around. yoshi was happiest with kira.
the common denominator? deep space nine. so they go back.
and I can picture it too. the o’briens hop a ride on the enterprise-E. get a chance to see their friends and family there. before switching between a few other transports. it’s a long and exhausting trip, but when they finally dock with ds9, kira’s waiting for them on the other side. she practically sprints to yoshi and scoops him up in her arms and twirls him about. keiko and miles look on fondly. then wrap nerys up in a hug with molly. kissing her on either cheek until she blushes.
nerys takes them to their quarters. perks of being commander means she was able to requisition a large enough suite for all four of them near her own. and, yeah, maybe it’s a bit presumptuous on nerys’ part, but neither keiko or miles complain. it’s still unspoken, but nerys knows why the o’briens came back.
or at least she hopes she knows why.
they start out kinda shy. miles and keiko take nerys on a few dates to quark’s. have dinner and walk the promenade. wander around the shops and pick up little gifts for each other. maybe indulge in jumja sticks for dessert. just be together.
and it’s so easy. easier than nerys ever hoped she could have. easier than it’s ever been when it was just keiko and miles. easier than any of them remembered when nerys was pregnant.
easy because at the end of the night, yoshi is ecastatic to see his marnah and tell her about his day at school and molly can’t wait to share all the station gossip with her auntie. and miles and nerys always ask nerys to stay just a little longer each time. until she never leaves at all.
it’s only a few years later they have a small blended bajoran-human wedding ceremony. bind themselves all together. worf is miles’ best man, molly is keiko’s maid of honor, and yoshi stands with nerys. they even exchange names. keiko and miles become the kira-o’briens. and nerys adds o’brien as a second given name.
everything changes but also nothing does. tho the 5 of them do move into a single set of quarters. with 3 bedrooms. quarters that just so happen to overlook the wormhole. and it’s there, over family dinner a few months later, that molly remarks on how she’s the only member of thier family without the name kira. how she feels oddly left out.
because nerys has always technically been yoshi’s other mother. the o’briens made sure she retained legal guardianship rights to him when he was born. that if anything ever happened to them, she wouldn’t. couldn’t. be pushed aside.
and yeah, molly has worf. he delivered her on the enterprise-d during disaster (st: tng 5x05) and the novelization of unification (st: tng 5x07 & 08) establishes that she’s named after him. evidence enough for me that he’s her godfather.
except nerys is now molly’s third parent. she wants to belong to nerys like her brother does. like her parents do. so they decide, all together, that nerys should officially adopt molly.
there’s a mountain of padds with forms to fill out. one copy for the federation and one copy for the bajoran provisional government. but the part that really matters is the welcome ceremony held at the station’s temple. where nerys formally asks molly to join her family. promises to protect her like a parent if molly will trust her with the responsibility. and of course molly agrees. there’s tear and laughter and and hugs and after a quick prayer by the vedek, molly officially becomes molly miyaki worf kira-o'brien.
and she wears kai opaka’s necklace to the ceremony.
For @pollyna who had the lovely idea of Garak babysitting Molly, which I then corrupted into something a bit more spy vs. spy.
—
“You promise me you won’t invite me to dinner,” Garak said as he stood in the entrance to his shop, “yet you expect me to look after your child for you? Forgive me, but I think you’ve skipped some rather important steps.”
“Believe me, you were the last person on my list,” Chief O’Brien said. “But Keiko is still at her algae conference, Julian is workin’ the late shift, Jake went with Kira to Bajor, and now one of the dockin’ rings has gone offline.”
“And Constable Odo?” Garak asked.
“Workin’. Look, I just need you to look after her for an hour. Can you do that?”
“I suppose,” Garak said, looking down at the five-year-old girl who was eyeing him suspiciously.
“No. No supposin’,” Miles said, poking towards the Cardassian with a stern finger. “Can you do it?”
“Chief O’Brien!” Commander Sisko’s voice boomed out over Miles’ comm badge. Miles tapped the badge and muttered, “Be there in a moment.”
“It looks to me,” Garak said with a sickly sweet smile, “as if you don’t have much choice in the matter, Chief.”
Miles smiled bitterly at him before kneeling down to talk to Molly. “Molly, darlin’,” he said, taking her hand in his. “I’ll be back in a second, alright? You be good for Mr. Garak. If anythin’ happens, you call Constable Odo.”
Molly nodded, still too afraid to speak.
“Really, Chief, I don’t think Constable Odo will be at all necessary,” Garak said, sidling between father and child and ushering Molly into his shop. “Ms. Molly and I will have a perfectly wonderful time.”
—
Fifty-eight minutes. Miles managed to fix the problem in fifty-eight minutes, giving him just enough time to sprint over to Garak’s shop before the hour was up.
“Molly,” Miles panted as he braced himself against his knees. “Are… you… alright? Are you… hurt?”
“Daddy! Look at my new doll!” Molly exclaimed from where she was sitting by the counter. She held up a rag doll clearly made out of the off-cuts of various garments.
“Are you well, Chief?” Garak asked, a twinkle in his icy blue eyes. He leaned against the counter, a concerned look on his face. “You look a bit winded.”
“Mr. Garak let me pick out all the colors and her dress!” Molly said as she hopped off her stool and presented her new toy to her father. “She has black hair like me and her dress has yellow in it.” Miles gingerly took the doll from his daughter and looked it over. It was a fairly simple rag doll with hair made of black yarn, multiple beige colors stitched together to form a body (with one lavender streak that he guessed Molly had insisted on), and a dress made out of a red and yellow striped fabric with little lace details around the neck and sleeves. Some markers had been applied to the head in what could be generously described as a face.
“Suppose you had that just lyin’ around?” Miles asked, gesturing at Garak with the doll.
“He made it!” Molly said. “And I did the face. Mr. Garak’s good at making things.”
“Just part of being a tailor, my dear,” Garak said with a slight bow of his head.
Miles narrowed his eyes at him.
“Can I have my doll back?” Molly asked.
“Hmm? Yeah. Of course, sweetheart,” he said, handing her the doll. He crouched down so that he was at eye-level with his daughter. “Why don’t you start headin’ over to our flat. I’ll replicate us some ice cream as soon as I’m done talkin’ to Mr. Garak.”
“Ok!” Molly replied cheerfully before skipping out of the shop.
“Delightful child,” Garak commented as she left. “I regret having not made the acquaintance of Mrs. O’Brien. She must be a charming lady.”
“Did you put somethin’ inside that doll?” Miles growled as soon as Molly was out of hearing.
“Chief, I’m surprised at you! What would I hide inside a child’s doll?”
“Data rods, poisons, some sort of nano-communication device.”
“All wonderful ideas, but, I assure you, the thought did not occur to me.” He finished rolling up a skein of lace and deposited it in a drawer. “If, however, you want to be absolutely certain, I suppose you could always… tear apart the stitching.” He leaned forward on the counter. “I would simply recommend that Molly not be around to witness the destruction of her doll.”
“You’re insane.”
“So I’ve been told. Good evening, Chief O’Brien.”
—
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.”
“Check it again.”
“I have checked it!” Julian exclaimed. “Again and again and again. Rom ran it through a check for data rods and other mechanics, I’ve done every test I know for poisons, and your theory about it containing some sort of drug has proven to be completely false.” Julian slid the doll across their table at Quark’s. “Face it, Miles. Garak isn’t doing anything nefarious. He made a doll for Molly. That’s it.”
“That can’t be it. He’s up to somethin’.”
“Well,” Julian said. “If you want to be absolutely certain…”
“Don’t you start,” Miles growled.
Julian grimaced at him. “What? I was just going to suggest you take the doll back to Garak,” he said, gesturing towards Garak’s shop. “He could open it up for you and resew it.” He took a sip of his beer. “But I think you’re being a bit paranoid.”
“Julian,” Miles said as he picked up the doll, “it’s statements like that that remind me you don’t have any kids.”
—
“Hmm… Let’s see. Yes, Vitarian wool perhaps wasn’t the wisest choice for batting, but it’s what I had on hand.” He looked up at a stunned Chief O’Brien then down at the dismantled doll. “Are you satisfied?”
“Give me that!” Miles said, yanking a hunk of wool off the table. He poked at it with his finger and held it up to the light. “There’s nothin’ in here,” he said.
“Very astute of you,” Garak commented. “Now, if you don’t mind, it will take a few minutes to reassemble this.”
“Nothin’ in there,” Miles repeated, letting the wool fall onto the counter.
Garak made a bemused face and began portioning off some thread. “Chief O’Brien,” he said as he expertly threaded his needle, “I know I’m not your favorite person on the station –”
“There’s an understatement.”
“ – but I don’t put deadly or dangerous things in children’s toys.” He began backstitching the doll’s side together. “Even Cardassians have their limits.”
“Yeah. I suppose.” Miles crossed his arms over his chest. “No hard feelin’s?” he asked.
“On the contrary,” Garak said as he stuffed the wool back into the doll and maneuvered it through its body, “this has given me new hope for the station.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“Well, it’s been so strange, having everyone trust me,” Garak said as he stitched the final touches onto the doll. He held it out to Miles. “It’s good to know there’s at least one cynical soul left.”
Miles nodded and carefully took the doll. “Glad to be of help,” he said. He gave Garak a suspicious once over before turning to leave the shop.
“Oh, Chief?” Garak said.
“What is it, Garak?” he growled.
“Since I did happen to use Vitarian wool, I’m afraid Molly’s doll is hand-wash only.” He smiled as he watched the gears turn in O’Brien’s head and his shoulders slump. “I hope that’s not too much of an inconvenience.”
