Fanfic / Doctor Ghemor, I Presume?

Doctor Ghemor, I Presume? is a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series on Archive of Our Own, written by Steerpike13713.

It's basically an AU that spins off from a rewriting of the "Second Skin" episode, with a major difference: what if Julian Bashir was the one abducted?

Cue a painful yet strangely rewarding discovery of what family can and should be for the good doctor.

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Tropes found into the story:

• Abusive Parents: Richard and Amsha Bashir. When confronted, Julian defends them with the argument they never laid a hand on their son, only for Garak to point people with loving parents generally have more to say than "they never hit me".
  • Enabran Tain. Julian still cannot understand why Garak mourns the dude.
• Actor Allusion: Julian's maternal family being from Cairo and his mother's maiden name of 'Khalifa' are all allusions to Alexander Siddig's role in Cairo Time.
• Adaptational Nationality: Canon Bashir is Ambiguously Brown who identifies as English. In this fic, it's established he was born in Cairo before his parents moved to Britain, which makes Julian an Egyptian Arab.
• Awful Truth: To Julian, the definite confirmation that yes, he is Julian Bashir is that.
• Becoming the Mask: Through a mix of gaslighting and desperation for love, Julian actually slips within Legate Ghemor's child's role.
• Berserk Button: DO NOT harm or belittle Julian in front of Garak or Ghemor.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Following his unwilling full-body surgery, Julian can't help but notice the differences between Cardassian and human physiology. Cardassians have four prehensile, clawed toes on every feet, unusually sensitive shoulders, erotic pleasure zones on the chest and the belly and hair more akin to feathers.
• Body Horror: Julian completely freaks after waking up and discovering that he was surgically altered to look Cardassian. It was very thorough.
• Brick Joke: Right before his abduction, Julian wonders if Garak has already read Murder on the Orient Express. Right after rescuing the good doctor, Garak starts to bemoan about the book being unimaginative and completely ridiculous.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Garak and Tekeny are left bewildered and confused by the sheer hostility the Federation displays against augments.
  • Touching someone's shoulder in public is a declaration of courtship in Cardassian culture. Julian feebly protests that Garak might not have intended it this way when they first met, but, well, Garak.
  • After reading Murder on the Orient Express, Garak finds Poirot letting the culprits go free completely ridiculous. A government operator is supposed to bring justice!
• Distracted by the Sexy: Garak is stunned speechless when he lays eyes on Julian in full Cardassian make-up. He declares him "more beautiful than ever" and slightly ogles his cleavage, something that Julian attribues to a possible concussion.
• Everyone Can See It: Apparently, Julian is the only resident on Deep Space Nine unaware of the fact that him and Garak are made for each other.
• Family of Choice: When given the opportunity, Julian actually wishes for the Cardassian Ghemor to be his father rather than Richard Bashir.
• Fantastic Racism: Bajoran staff on Deep Space Nine is unusually cold and fearful towards Julian when seeing him surgically altered to appear Cardassian. They also don't approve his continued relationship with Legate Ghemor.
  • The Federation's immediate and only solution to deal with augments is to chuck them into prison or mental institutions and throw the key away. Julian outright dismisses the possibility of living in exile because the Federation is just that scared of letting an augment go free.
• Foil: Tekeny Ghemor and Richard Bashir are parental figures in Julian's life. Both of them were responsible for him receiving unwanted alterations (the full-body procedure to make Julian into a Cardassian was temporary and Ghemor had not asked for it, while the genetic engineering aiming to improve Julian was permanent at Richard's demand). Where Ghemor genuinely wants the best for Julian, Richard is looking for his own interest. Ghemor is deeply attached to someone who bears no relation whatsoever to him, while Richard couldn't even accept his blood child.
• For Want Of A Nail: First and foremost, Legate Ghemor's child was a male named Cesnil instead of a female named Iliana in order for the plot to be possible.
  • Julian is much more vulnerable to the Obsidian Order's manipulations than Kira. The constant stress of hiding his true nature (as an augment), his desire to blend and a wish for genuine familial love means he actually considers embracing "Cesnil Ghemor" as his real identity.
  • Since their son found validation and support beyond them, Richard and Amsha Bashir are subjected to quite strong hostility and harsh criticisms.
  • As he came to visit Deep Space Nine early and has adopted a doctor as his son, Tekeny Ghemor is diagnosticated sooner, which gives him a chance to beat his illness before it goes terminal.
• Gaslighting: The Obsidian Order arranged for Julian to be abducted and physically altered before telling him he was a deep cover agent for them. It worked so well that Julian was left uncertain of his own identity for two years.
  • Richard and Amsha Bashir use a more subtle and insidious method, as they refuse to let Julian express himself and insist to give their narrative. Julian is shown completely exhausted by the pressure of untangling the lies and re-establishing the truth.
• Gender Flip: Both Illiana and Alon Ghemor are here gender-flipped - Illiana becomes Cesnil in order to facilitate the plot, and Alon becomes Alin just to even out the gender balance within the Ghemor family.
• Gone Horribly Right: Entek is floored to hear "Cesnil" actually embracing Ghemor as his father.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Tekeny Ghemor's reaction to Richard and Amsha Bashir's brand of parenting is nothing but horror and confusion. Ironically, the Cardassians are supposed to be the "bad" guys and the Federation the "good" ones, yet the roles are inversed.
• Good Parents: Ghemor is nothing but patient, loving and understanding towards "Cesnil", encouraging him to make his own path and being left flabbergasted by the Bashirs' awfulness towards their own child.
• Government in Exile: A major through-line of Blaze With the Glory is that Ghemor has been approached about starting one of these on Deep Space 9 and, because his condition is not yet terminal, he feels obliged to at least try and use his influence to stand against Dominion rule on Cardassia, despite being seriously ill.
• Hands-Off Parenting: Deconstructed with Tekeny Ghemor. His fear to railroad his son left Cesnil to feel aimless and desperate for guidance, leading him to join the Obsidian Order. Ghemor never forgave himself for this, nor his wife.
• Happily Adopted: Even when Julian Bashir is definitely established as human, Ghemor still considers him as his son. It's made more significant by the fact that adoption isn't a widespread custom on Cardassia.
• Hypocrite: For all their claims of loving their son and sacrificing everything for him, Richard and Amsha Bashir refuse to see him as more than something to prop them up and immediately accuse him from being ungrateful when he refuses to comply.
  • Garak points the Federation preaching empathy and tolerance starts to ring hollow when the persecution against augments — most often people who had no choice regarding their nature — comes to light.
• Irony: Deep Space Nine's staff thinks very nice of Julian's human parents to come visit him, and actually arranges free time for them to reconnect. That's the last thing Julian actually wants.
  • A Cardassian — remember, Space Nazi — is a much better parent to a human than his own blood relations.
  • Garak commenting on Julian's beauty has the doctor musing that his friend's sarcasm is still intact. Looking at the context, Garak was completely sincere.
• Love at First Sight: Garak claims to have had this for Julian. This being Garak, the claim is of course very questionable, if not for the fact that his first-ever introduction to Julian started with Garak making a very obvious (by Cardassian standards) pass at him.
• Milholland Relationship Moment: Julian frets about Ghemor rejecting if it were confirmed without any shadow of doubt that the good doctor truly is human. Ghemor does feel down since his blood son is still missing, but he came to genuinely love Julian and still wants him in his life.
  • The whole augment thing. It constantly loomed over Julian's head, making him think that no one could ever want a genetic freak. Neither Garak or Ghemor care, heck, they outright offer support to the doctor and decide to fight for his right to stay out of prison or an institution.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Tekeny Ghemor openly doting on his child would actually be considered as déclassé for Cardassian society — in which you're allowed to love your offspring, but not too much and not too obviously.
• Nervous Wreck: Julian can stress to the point of working himself into a panic attack. It gets even worse when he starts worrying about his identity and future.
• Papa Wolf: Nothing will stop Tekeny Ghemor from protecting Julian. Not the Obsidian Order, not their lack of blood relation, not even Julian's abusive birth family.
• Oblivious to Love: Julian cannot twig on the fact that Garak would like nothing more than jump his bones until Ghemor awkwardly explains him how intimate touching someone's shoulder actually is.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Ghemor isn't happy to learn his maybe-son is being courted by Enabran Tain's former right hand, while Garak is blatantly terrified by the possibility of the Legate commanding his murder.
  • Then Garak meets Richard and Amsha Bashir. They hate him for antagonizing them, while he's upset to see him belittle his husband.
• Oh, Crap!: Julian verges on a full-blown Freak Out when Entek bluntly announces the Obsidian Order knows for Adigeon Prime.
  • Garak's horrified dread when Legate Ghemor walks on him fondling Julian's shoulder is pure comedy, though.
  • Purely heartwrenching when Richard and Amsha Bashir come to Deep Space Nine, both for being Abusive Parents and for permanently proving that Julian isn't related to Tekeny.
• Parenthetical Swearing: Ghemor telling "Good evening, Dukat" in the sort of tone more often used to express such sentiments as "take a long walk out of a short airlock".
• Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Ghemor is distinctly unhappy to find Garak caressing his son's shoulders — erogenous zones for Cardassians. Then Julian starts to blab about the weekly lunches and arguing regarding litterature, and Garak cannot flee quick enough.
• Sadistic Choice: The root behind the doctor's reluctance to settle his identity issues. See, Cesnil Ghemor would lose everything Julian Bashir has worked for, but Julian Bashir would lose Cesnil Ghemor's loving family.
• Secretly Selfish: How Ghemor bluntly sums up the decision of the Bashirs to illegally enhance their child. They may call this love, but it was far from it.
• Shout-Out: The first story is titled Black Mercy, after the Lotus-Eater Machine from the Superman mythos.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Courtesy of consulting early and his doctor son refusing to let him so soon, Tekeny Ghemor is poised to survive the illness that killed him in canon.
  • Also, the series strongly implied Legate Ghemor's child was dead. Word of God confirmed that Cesnil was alive but Put on a Bus since he was on the Voyager.
• Spotting the Thread: After hearing his whole life was a lie, Julian makes no effort whatsoever to locate his human family, embracing Legate Ghemor (who helped to gaslight him, if tangentially) as a father instead. Garak immediately understands the doctor has serious issues with his parents for eagerly discarding them at the first opportunity.
• Unreliable Narrator: Julian has real problems with anxiety and self-esteem, which distorts his viewpoint and expectations regarding people.
• Vicariously Ambitious: Richard Bashir was deeply aware he wouldn't achieve nothing important in his life. Forcing gene therapy on his young, helpless son and trying to mold him into a famous, successful person was his attempt to gain notoriety by proxy. He was nothing short of pissed off when Julian decided to not play this game.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Apparently, Garak was quite eager to join the mission to rescue the good doctor from Cardassia Prime. He later upgrades to husband in the two-years timeskip and is no less fearsome when it comes about defending Julian from his human parents or being persecuted as an augment.
• With Friends Like These...: Julian seriously considers the possibility of Garak selling him to the Obsidian Order when he wakes up on Cardassia Prime.