johannestevans:

thinking about how sexy it would be for julian and garak to interrogate someone together, maybe a Khon-Ma spy within the Fed - by which i mean BASHIR is with the prisoner, and they know he and garak are Involved

and julian to be sitting on a desk with his arms crossed over his chest, looking at this guy in a chair, and asking him questions all polite and reasonable and even

Garak standing back by the door

and this guy refusing to answer any questions at all, and he’s obviously anxious and angry at being captured, but he isn’t interested in engaging with Julian’s polite “I’m just a nice doctor” thing bc he knows it’s just the prelude to an interrogation

and Julian sighs, gets to his feet, rolls his sleeves up

and the Khon-Ma laughs, shows his teeth. “what now? you’re going to torture me?”

Julian who looks at him almost owlishly, his eyes wide. “Me? Oh, no, you’ve misunderstood - I’m a doctor. I’ve taken a Hippocratic oath.”

Julian laughs, and it’s a soft, gentle sound, almost self-effacing, perfectly polite. “No, I couldn’t possibly - it would go against all I am. No, /I’m/ not going to torture you. He is.”

And nodding to Garak as he moves to leave

and the Khon-Ma whose jaw drops, then he steels himself, but just as he’s leaving, julian puts his hand on garak’s chest

“I know you don’t like it when you feel I’m telling you how to do your work–”

The Khon-Ma can’t see Julian’s fixed expression, his raising eyebrows.

Garak can, though, and he picks up the thread immediately, puts on the face of the harried and put-upon spouse

“Now, my dear–”

“I’m just saying–”

“Which of us is the trained interrogator?”

Julian sighs. “You are. But /I/ am the doctor, and he’s a human.”

“And?”

And julian who SIGHS, and he looks distasteful but almost bored as he glances back to their prisoner, end then says in an undertone, loud enough that the prisoner can still hear him, “Just… call me BEFORE he starts bleeding this time, hm? We don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“My dear doctor,” says Garak with tired and affectionate familiarity, “my methods–”

“I’m not asking you to change your methods, Garak, just alter them a bit. He’s not a Cardassian - we bleed quicker than you do, but we’re vulnerable.”

“So vulnerable, in fact–”

“Look, Garak,” says Julian, picking an imaginary piece of lint from Garak’s collar, “I know we bleed quicker, but think, you don’t have to cut so deep like you do with a Cardassian - we’ve got no scales, no ridges. You can peel an apple, can’t you? Think of it like that.”

and Garak who genuinely IS very aroused in this moment, not that he’s going to advertise it to their companion, who inhales as if inspired, cups Julian’s cheek.

“Beautiful creature,” he says reverently.

sternly: “As soon as he bleeds, Garak.”

“Yes, yes, of course!”

And just as Julian goes through the door and Garak steps forward, the Khon-Ma agent, suddenly a lot glossier with sweat, blurts out, “Wait!”

And Julian glances back, eyebrow raised, and seems pleasantly surprised that he’s suddenly cooperative

(and after, Garak with hot blood goes to Julian’s quarters to flirt, maybe to teasingly tell him that empty threats, no matter how beautifully acted, won’t always work

finds Julian sitting on the bunk, staring into space.

“Well,” Garak says softly, as comfortingly as he can manage, stroking his hand over the doctor’s shoulder. “At least I didn’t find you on your knees vomiting into the basin.”

“You just missed that bit.”

“You did very well, my dear.”

“I know, Garak. That’s the problem.”)

(i posted this on twitter first)