Making Peace
Title: Making Peace
Pairing: Garak/Bashir
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 729
Warnings: Sentimentality
Beta: PrelocAndKanar. Big thanks a usual for your deeply appreciated honest opinion and your expert grammar corrections.
Feedback: Yes please. Anything at all. Good as well as bad. Slap it on me!
Disclaimer: I don't own any chatty Cardassians or do-goody Doctors. Or even the concepts thereof. *sigh* Not mine. At all. Oh I only wish.
Summary: Garak has a chat with the late Tain.
Link to this fic on LJ and on DW and on AO3.
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This fic is also available as a podfic.
Read by: me.
Duration: 05:07 mins.
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Garak sat down gingerly in the inner chamber of the Bajoran temple. Even though he was quite alone, he still felt awkward. He looked around just to check again that he was alone, before clearing his throat.
“Hello Tain... father. I know you're dead and can't hear me, but I promised I would say this to you, and this seems the most likely place for something like this to be heard.
“You see, I'm getting married today. Yes, it does seem incredible, doesn't it. I mean you practically spent my whole life telling me that no good would come of the weakness of attachment, and yet, here I am. And it's not one of your famous arranged marriages for the good of the state, either. Oh no. If you have a grave somewhere, feel free to spin in it now.
“Because... I'm getting married to someone I love. Very dearly. A gentle soul much more worthy of my devotion than you ever were. You taught me many things, but the things I'm learning now seem so much more valuable somehow. More precious and more worthwhile than your love of power and influence.
“I wonder, were you ever happy? You had power, yes. But what did it get you? In the end I think you were just as lonely as I have been. Maybe that was part of the reason why you exiled me. To make me pay for feeling a little happiness when you had none. But that's all speculation anyway.
“The point of the matter is that I promised I would make my peace with you. The things one does to please the one you love... not that you'd know how that feels. But maybe I should tell you. Indeed after all these years, maybe I can finally teach 'you' something. Perhaps it's not too late.
“I'm still exiled and still mistrusted by everyone around me. But it doesn't matter. No, truly it doesn't. Because I'm willing to endure it all for the one I love. 'So what's in it for me' you might ask? Everything. I have very little power or influence. No position of honor in any community and practically no respect from anyone. But those things pale in comparison to coming home to smiles and embraces every day.
“You may huff all you like. I'm starting to believe you never took your time to savor the little things. The touch of a gentle hand to wake you in the morning, instead of a cold computer voice. The smell of someone other than yourself always present on all your belongings. The sound of your beloved humming in the shower. The fact that someone actually cares about where you are and what you do is more precious than you can ever imagine.
“I pity you for never having it. I do. And feel free to have your laugh about how silly I've become. How much of a disappointment I've proved to be yet again. But your amusement will be hollow. In the end, you will be alone. No one will hear you laugh or laugh with you. No one will listen to you or care what you have to say.”
Garak sighed heavily and clasped his hands in his lap.
“But that's all pointless. You're dead and you probably had a miserable life. But I will do better. I will achieve more than you ever did. Your name might be remembered longer through history than mine, but I will know the truth. That you never really had anything. That your life was empty and sad. I shed no tears over you. You deserve no such display. But I know, that when I die, someone will weep over me. Someone will grieve for me. Someone will miss me.
“So! Spin along in your grave all you like. I shall go on to be a very happy man and you can go on being dead. I fulfilled my promise to my husband to be, and made my peace. Perhaps not the way he would have liked, but still. I have done my part. So I take this opportunity to say a firm farewell. Not just to you, but to the man you shaped me to be. I'm someone else now. And frankly... I quite like this person.”
With that, he rose and left the temple without a backwards glance.
End.