"How is she?"

Sisko put the quiet question to his science officer and long-time friend, Jadzia-once-Curzon Dax. Dax sighed, pushing her hair back from her eyes as she straightened from her hunched position over the communications console. There was no need to ask who the captain meant.

"She finally went back to her quarters. She said she needed to pray." Dax, in her mind's eye, compared the radiant bride who had spoken her marriage vows with such confidence to the white-faced widow whose mouth was now set in such a hard, tight line. Widow. Nerys is Odo's widow. Dax gave a grim snort at the universe's latest cruel joke.

"What have we learned about Chalan Aroya?" Sisko decided to address a topic he thought he might possibly deal with. "Was she just 'the woman scorned'?"

"No," Dax shook her head. "Bashir ran some tests on her. She's not even Bajoran. She's a surgically altered Vorta."

"Vorta?" Sisko looked up sharply.

"Apparently the Founders wanted to make damned sure that Odo didn't actually get to where he enjoyed being human."

"So they sent her after me." Sisko and Dax both jumped as they heard Kira's cold, clear voice sound from the doorway behind them. Once again in uniform, the Bajoran major stood practically at attention. "Only she ended up killing Odo instead."

"Nerys," Sisko said quietly, "how are you doing?"

"Well enough," Kira said briefly. "I'd like to take an extended leave of absence on Bajor when this is all over, Captain. If you don't mind."

"Once we turn Chalan Aroya over to the Bajoran authorities, it pretty much is over, Major. You certainly don't have to hang around for that."

Kira looked at Dax. "No luck with finding information on how to reverse the effect of the energy weapon, Dax?"

"No - but I'm not giving up yet."

Kira gave a wry, hopeless smile. "I appreciate that. Then with your permission, Captain, I think I'll leave tomorrow. Lupaza is here, she can wait for me that long, but her katterpods won't wait after that." Lupaza was an old resistance comrade of Kira's, now a Bajoran farmer. "A little digging in the dirt sounds good right now."

"All right." Sisko nodded gravely. "Major, if there's anything I can do -"

"It's all right, Captain," Kira said in a strong, decided tone. "We'll be fine."

Kira turned on her heel and left before they could ask any more questions - questions that might melt the lump in her throat and make her start crying so hard that she could never stop. After hesitating briefly outside of Ops, she turned toward the Infirmary, steeling herself for the good-bye that needed to be said.

Bashir met her with a look of anxious concern, his doctor's eyes scanning her as carefully as any medical instrument. The only one to know her secret, his gaze lingered in the area of her abdomen. "Is everything all right? At least," he amended, "as right as can be expected?"

Kira nodded briefly. "It's fine. I just -"

"You just -?"

"I just wish I had gone ahead and told him. I was saving it for a surprise, for tonight."

"He had no idea?"

Kira shook her head. "Not an inkling." A ghost of her former smile flitted across her face. "He did make a comment a couple of days ago about how I was starting to grow a tummy. He said it was sexy." Kira closed her eyes as though at a sudden stab of pain.

"Major ..." Bashir began hesitantly.

"Yes?" Kira looked up hopefully at the possibility of a distraction.

"Most couples - well, it's practically unheard of now for a woman to conceive without planning on it. Did you know beforehand that this was something you wanted to do?"

Kira smiled a little. "You'll have to ask Dax to explain tienju-pagh to you. One of the religious stipulations is no birth-control - although I hadn't quite gotten around to explaining that part of it to Odo." Kira's voice broke slightly as she spoke her dead husband's name.

"So - what happens now?" Bashir asked quietly.

"Now? Now, doctor, I go home to Bajor, resign my commission, and try to raise up a son who'll be a credit to what his father stood for."

"A tall order."

"Tell me about it."

Kira mused silently for a moment, before asking, "May I see him? I may just stay here tonight, if that's all right. I - I need to say goodbye."

"Go right ahead, Major. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything - or if you would just like someone to sit with you."

"Thank you, Julian." Kira leaned over, impulsively kissing the young doctor's cheek. In some remote corner of her mind she felt a stab of amusement at his blush, before she turned to enter the small, quiet room that held the end to almost all her hopes.

Hello, my love, she said silently, approaching the still form wrapped in a gentle field of light. I hope you know how mad I am at you ... Quark had the right idea, none of us needed to get hurt. Why did you have to be some kind of hero and die for me?

Someone had left a chair close to the stasis bed, and Kira sank into it gratefully, resigning herself to the tears that were finally beginning to at first slip, then fall, then pour down her cheeks, to the choking sobs that seemed to rip themselves from her gut. At least you finally believed that I loved you. I suppose I should thank the Prophets for that.

At some point Kira began to talk out loud - almost trivia, some of it, or at least not things a corpse would normally be interested in. She told him about Aroya being a Vorta -"they're hermaphrodites who don't breed outside of a test tube, of course she didn't like having sex with you" - and went on to explain softly about her own condition.

"Odo, you know that tummy you thought I was getting? I'm going to have a baby - I meant to tell you tonight - actually, I guess I still am. Telling you tonight, I mean. It's a boy, so they say - I suppose the brown eyes will dominate, although I thought I'd like them to be blue like yours. Funny, all the little things we waste our time wanting ... all I can think of to want right now is for you to open your eyes and tell me I dreamed this whole mess."

Kira dashed the tears from her eyes with her fingertips, squaring her shoulders resolutely. "Why didn't you tell me sooner how you felt?" she pondered. "I feel like we wasted so much time - years I could have been loving you. Instead of just a few months ... Prophets, I wish I could touch you. No, let me change that - I wish you could touch me."

"Major Kira?"

Kira looked up, startled, at the soft, reticent voice that sounded behind her. Turning, she saw Dr. Mora hesitating in the doorway, traces of an apologetic smile hovering around the corners of his mouth. Kira stared at him warily, feeling her usual ambivalence when confronted with this relic from Odo's past.

"Dr. Mora."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to intrude ... I just wanted to see him. If you like, I'll go."

It occurred to Kira that she would, in fact, like him to leave, but she decided to be charitable. "You can come in for a minute." She sighed. "I think I've pretty much said what I needed to say."

"Don't leave on my account, Major, please!" Mora raised a hand in protest. He approached the stasis bed slowly, his blue eyes thoughtful and sad. "You know," he said thoughtful, "the real miracle is that Odo ever managed to tell you that he loved you at all."

"You were listening to me? Just now?" Kira's nostrils flared indignantly.

"I'm sorry, Major - when you've been a scientist as long as I have, you forget when observation might be considered eavesdropping. I apologize."

"Then you know that I'm pregnant."

"No -- I didn't know that." Mora looked genuinely surprised. "I only got here a moment ago - I didn't hear that part. Do you want to be congratulated, Major? It's so hard to tell when something like that comes on top of something like this." He nodded at the still form on the stasis-bed.

"Maybe you should just pray for me." Kira's rueful smile faded as she added, "I forgot. You don't do that, do you?"

"I occasionally offer up a word or two to the Prophets, during times of stress. I mostly just take their names in vain, though." Mora made a wry grimace. "Science has proven a far more reliable thing to put my faith in - I guess you could say that Odo was my miracle."

"Funny," Kira murmured, "mine too." She looked up at Mora curiously. "Why do you think it's so remarkable that Odo finally told me that he loved me?"

"Major, who knows how long he was in that capsule in the Denorios Belt before we found it? And then, in the lab - it took us a long while before we had any idea that he might be sentient. All of that time - all of those years - alone in the universe with no one to love him, no one to touch him - seeing Odo able to fall in love with someone like you has come closer to making me believe that there might be more than meets the eye to these Prophets of ours than anything else I've ever encountered."

"Well, it was no thanks to the scientists in your laboratory." Kira honestly didn't mean it to come out like that, but she didn't retract her words. "Odo Ital - he finally told me that story, night before last. How could you do something like that? Make a joke out of calling him 'nothing'? How could you keep him in a lab at all after you found out he was sentient?"

"Did Odo say that he wanted to leave? Before he actually did?"

"No," Kira admitted. "Did he not?"

"I think he was afraid to. Even a bad 'family' is better than no family at all, and we were the only family Odo had. I guess being that different was a little frightening, even for Odo."

Kira remembered Odo's heart-wrung comments about his own face, and gave a slow nod. Then she shook her head angrily.

"I don't understand it! When he died, he almost seemed - happy! He smiled at me, and he said ..." Kira's voice trailed off as she remembered the exact words. "He said 'My end is my beginning'. What do you think he meant?"

"It's a line from a poem - Terran, I think. From their twentieth century. I'm sorry, I can't remember the poet, except that Odo was very fond of his work."

"Odo had a favorite poet?"

"He had several." Mora smiled. "The sharp, cynical ones, I'm afraid - but the one you just quoted has this odd streak of mysticism running through his works. Funny - it's like Odo turned out to be Galahad after all."

"How did you know about that?" Kira asked sharply. "About our playing Camelot?"

"Dax was kind enough to spend some time with me after - after the ceremony. She told me some stories about Odo's life during these past few months."

"So how did he turn out to be Galahad? By being a hero?" By being stupid? Kira raged silently.

"Well, in a sense ... Galahad died when he achieved the object of his quest, his ultimate goal. For Odo, I suppose that was you."

Kira stared at the scientist, stricken, until Mora said, uncomfortable, "I've intruded on your grief long enough, Major. I just hope that - please keep in touch. I'd like to know when you have your baby ..." Mora's words trailed off ineffectually, and he sighed and left the room.

"'My end is my beginning' ..." Trust Odo, Kira raged silently, to baffle me to the very last. She stared at the quiet face of the man she loved, silent tears slipping down her cheeks.

It was much later that Kira became vaguely aware of the faintest of sounds, coming from the room behind her - trained resistance fighter, she whirled to see the surfaces slipping from three of the room's unlighted consoles, and froze as three changelings coalesced before her. She started to reach for her combadge before the foremost of the changelings, the seeming female Kira remembered from the Founders' original homeworld, put out a hand to forestall her.

"You," Kira hissed, contenting herself for the time being with putting all of her venom into that single word. "You've done what you set out to do. Why don't you just leave us alone?"

Ignoring Kira, the female changeling stepped closer to the stasis-bed, looking down sadly at its occupant. "Poor Odo," she said simply. "It was not supposed to come to this."

"That's what happens when you send in assassins," Kira blazed.

The female changeling looked at her coolly. "Our target was never Odo, Major. Our target was you."

"Fine! Then go ahead and -"Kira froze, belatedly remembering the child she carried. The female changeling gave a faint, condescending smile.

"You won't be able to carry it to term, you know. We had enough control over shaping Odo's genetic structure to make sure of that."

Kira felt a sudden rush of nausea. Bitch. You heart-leeching bitch. You want to take that, too? Refusing to let her enemy see how vulnerable she felt, Kira shrugged. "Then why don't you just kill me? Because I don't think I want to live without Odo."

"Were you finally able to love him, Major?" The changeling leader sounded genuinely curious. "Just because he was a solid, like you?"

"I would love Odo," Kira said through clenched teeth, "if he were a gas! I just loved him! Can't you understand that? I loved him for being Odo, not for something stupid like what his nose looked like or what shape he was when he slept!" Kira angled her body between the table and the watching shapeshifter, setting her chin determinedly against the tears that threatened. I'll be damned if I let this bitch see me cry.

"So you say now, Major. You will forgive me if I remain skeptical." The female changeling, followed closely by her compatriots, stepped around to the other side of the stasis bed. Reaching out, she deactivated a few controls, and the stasis field collapsed.

"What are you doing?" Kira demanded in a shrill voice. "Are you afraid we might figure out a way to fix him?" Her hand flew once again to her combadge.

"No," the female changeling said evenly, "we are going to 'fix him'. As I said, our intent was never to harm Odo. Believe it or not, we still care about him. And we will not let him die." She gave Kira a keen look. "We will show him and you once and for all how you will never truly accept a being so different from yourself. If I am wrong, Major - then Odo will deserve you. And you may almost deserve him."

The female changeling gestured to her silent companions, who came to came to stand with her - and morphed.

Three golden columns rose and then descended on the motionless human body stretched out on the stasis-bed, obscuring it entirely in a vortex of shifting, throbbing, translucent amber gel. Kira stood frozen, caught somewhere between fear and desperate hope - did they mean it? Could they, would they, as they said, 'fix' Odo? Or were they stealing whatever chance that Bashir might yet find for him?

Even as Kira's hand crept nearer and nearer to her combadge, the puddle of merged changelings shifted and withdrew. Two of them turned into bolts of liquid protoplasm that shot out through the ventilation shaft, while the third solidified into the familiar shape of the female changeling.

On the table, in great danger of slipping off of it, lay a golden, amorphous mass that throbbed gently in the subdued light.

"Your husband, Major - if you still want him," the female changeling said coolly. "I hope you both may learn a valuable lesson from all this - that Odo has no business here with you 'solids'. And that you'll finally let him come home."

In the wink of an eye, the Founder morphed and followed her comrades. Kira stayed frozen, staring at Odo in his gelatinous state.

At least, I think it's Odo - hell, how would I know? It isn't like he has any distinguishing features when he's like this! Kira slapped her combadge. "Dr. Bashir, report to the Infirmary! Medical emergency!"

"I'm right here, Nerys, what -"Bashir stuck his head in the door, pausing in shock as he saw what the stasis-bed held. He then tore back out the door into the Infirmary beyond, returning with the oversized specimen container that had served Odo as a 'bed' during past hospitalizations. "Nerys, help me scoop Odo into this! I don't want to risk the transporter until I've had a chance to check him out."

Kira obeyed blindly, without question, even though she shivered a bit at encountering Odo's substance. Soft and fluid, but silken, and surprisingly dry - it's not bad, she told herself. Just very, very -

Alien.

The word shot into her mind in place of the "different" she had honestly meant to use. My husband the alien. Prophets, will he even want me anymore?

Bashir meanwhile was snapping out orders as they carried the container into the main treatment room of the Infirmary, and Bashir installed it carefully on one of the diagnostic beds, before plugging in recalibrations, his fingers flying over the touchpad. He stepped back and observed the readings carefully, his brow furrowed in intense concentration. Finally he nodded.

"Major - it looks like Odo." He tore his gaze away from the readings to give Kira an incredulous smile. "Whatever happened?"

"Three of the Founders were here," Kira said in a tight voice.

"What?!" Bashir looked around him, startled.

"I suspect they're gone now, unless they're watching to see what we - what I do next." Kira went to stand next to the bio-bed, resting her fingertips on the rim of Odo's tub. "They think that I'll reject him now that he's a changeling again - and that he'll finally come 'home'. Now it's up to me - and him - to convince them that Odo's true home is here with me - with us." Kira rested her hands against her abdomen, and then looked at Bashir in sudden alarm. "The leader - she said that I wouldn't be able to carry Odo's and my baby to term, that they'd done something to his genetic structure. Julian, is that possible?"

"Get up on this other table," Bashir ordered. "I'll run a complete diagnostic and genetic scan on the fetus. I think Odo's just going to lie there and regenerate for a while, anyway. It's funny, though - in some ways his liquid-state readings are more 'stable' than I've ever seen them."

"What do you mean?" Kira asked curiously, as she moved to comply with his orders.

"Just a fancy, really - it's almost like he means to stay that way." Bashir avoided meeting Kira's sudden shocked stare.

Bashir ended up running three series of scans before he was satisfied with his results. Nodding slowly, he commented, "They certainly did build in a nasty little trigger - but it looks like they're fallible after all. Catching it this early, it's something that can be repaired with fetal surgery, and no harm done to you or the baby." Bashir gave a wry smile. "I can't tell you how much better it makes me feel to know that the Founders can make mistakes."

"How soon do I need to have the surgery?"

"Oh, the sooner the better. I'm going to call my assistants now." Bashir stepped into his office, already intent on this latest medical challenge. Kira looked down at Odo, resting quietly in his 'bucket', and reached out to let her fingers brush cautiously against his substance. It seemed to shimmer in response, thrumming with greater intensity against her fingertips - Kira slowly drew her hand away, swallowing hard at the sudden knot in her throat.

I love you, Odo. No matter what, I love you - I'll always love you. I loved you as a human, I love you now. Only ... what if they've locked you in this form instead?

Kira shivered at the thought.

Coming to after surgery, Kira's first thought was for the occupant of the diagnostic bed next to her own. She had been surprised when Bashir insisted on general anesthesia, when a simple neural block would have done the trick, but Bashir had shrugged and said, "I'm sorry, Major, but I think you could just use the rest."

Now her mind did feel clearer, and infinitely calmer. Bashir, leaning over her as she awakened, smiled as he followed her gaze.

"Still regenerating."

"How long now?" Kira wanted to know, sitting up to take a better look at the slumbering Odo.

"Oh ... about eight hours." Bashir was clearly uncomfortable with the question, and where he suspected it might lead.

"That's too long," Kira said quietly.

"Well, it has been a while," Bashir observed. "Maybe he just needs the extra time to make up for all of those months in a solid state."

"Maybe," Kira said quietly. She then turned to her other immediate concern. "The baby?"

"Will be fine," Bashir assured her. "A perfectly healthy human-Bajoran hybrid."

"That's good." Kira smiled wanly. She asked, in a wistful tone, "Do you know what color his eyes will be?"

"What?" Bashir looked startled at the question, but obliging scanned his data. "Well, give me a moment ... yes, here it is. Blue. Like the constable's."

"Really?" Kira felt a stab of absurd pleasure.

"Yes, human genes tend to dominate over Bajoran ones when it comes to eye color - although he will have your nose."

"I can live with that," Kira announced. She then noticed a flurry of activity as two figures entered the Infirmary and headed for her bedside.

"Major." Captain Sisko took her hand in his, squeezing it gently. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm all right." Kira let her eyes shift from Sisko's face to that of Dax, leaning over her other side. "Hello, Dax. Did Julian tell you?"

Jadzia smiled, nodding happily. "I'm so glad for you, Nerys."

"We'll just be glad to see you both up and around again, Major - and I think that both of you should take that leave on Bajor."

"I hope Odo will be up for it," Kira said quietly. The human captain and the Trill science officer both turned to look in the direction of Kira's gaze, to where Odo rested quietly in his specimen container.

Not a man for platitudes, Sisko contented himself with a gentle, "I hope so, too."

It turned out that Sisko and Dax were but the first in a string of visitors, all of whom seemed eager to congratulate or commiserate with Kira, but extremely shy about approaching the Infirmary's other patient. It wasn't until Quark strolled in that Odo was directly addressed.

Walking over to peer down directly into Odo's 'bucket', Quark nodded and said, "Just like you. Lie there and listen to what everyone has to say, so you can use it against 'em later. Well, if you're expecting me to confess to anything - don't!"

He then turned to Kira, watching amused from her biobed. "How are you doing, Major?"

"Feeling just fine, Quark. I haven't had the chance to thank you for what you did."

"Eh ... it wasn't much."

"It was smart," Kira said briefly. "I just wish Odo had stayed out of the way and let you take care of it - then none of us would be here right now, and I'd be on my honeymoon."

And possibly losing your baby, a small reminder sounded in her head. Kira started a little, then met Quark's look of veiled concern with a wry grimace. "I think the Ferengi may be right about something," Kira said quietly.

"What's that?" Quark looked agreeably surprised at the comment.

"Nothing worth having is free."

"That's part of the thirty-seventh Rule of Acquisition," Quark noted.

"Really? What's the other part?"

"The whole Rule is 'Nothing worth having is free - but they can't blame you for trying.'."

"You know," Kira said with a slow grin, "that's not a bad rule."

"I've always liked it." Quark smiled and nodded. "Well, I just wanted to see how you and the constable were doing - I'd better be going. It looks like a good time to close some business deals that are pending."

"You'd just better be sure that none of those deals are illegal! We won't be in here forever," Kira snorted, even while her heart warmed. She didn't for a minute think that Quark's first concern was how much easier he could conduct his usual nefarious practices.

"I'm counting on it." Presuming so far as to reach out and give Kira's hand a pat, Quark turned and left, though not without giving Odo a curious poke. Kira giggled as she imagined Odo's likely reaction, and then her expression sobered as her gaze fixed on her seemingly shape-locked husband. She slipped off the biobed and padded over to stand at Odo's side, reaching down to stroke his resting surface.

"You feel just like silk, did you know that?" she asked softly. "You know, I don't think I ever felt you while you were in a liquid state."

She continued touching Odo's substance gently -- then gasped as a tendril detached itself to wrap gently around her wrist. Kira stared at her husband's gelatinous form more closely, and whispered, "Odo? Odo, are you awake?"

In response, Odo sent a little more of himself up to caress her hand and wrist in a gentle, massaging motion. Kira's eyes went wide with shock.

"You can't shift, can you?" she murmured. "You're locked in this form -- just like you were locked into being human."

Odo withdrew from her hand in what almost felt like a sigh of acquiescence. There was a faint rippling in his surface, a shifting and changing, parts withdrawing while a series of fine, thin raised lines took shape. Kira looked closer.

There, like waves in Odo's substance, was the Bajoran word for, "Yes."

Somehow Kira forced herself not to pull her hand away, not to hide her face in horror. This was the person she loved, her tienju-pagh from the Prophets.

This.

It was even harder not to start screaming.

The faces that surrounded the conference table in Sisko's ready room the following morning were relentlessly positive - Kira would have preferred it, she thought, if they had relaxed to show the grimness underneath. One member of senior staff was conspicuous by his absence, which was ironic considering that it was he and his position which were under discussion.

Kira, tired and little sore, surreptitiously rubbed the back of her neck, trying to ease the taut muscles - Dax caught the movement out the corner of her eye, and Kira tried to smile in response to the Trill's compassionate gaze. Her face felt like a mask, locked in a look of determined optimism - Kira sighed and firmly rejected the tears that threatened to come to her eyes. Tears wouldn't help either Odo or herself as they tried to sort out the mess into which the Founders had thrust them.

"The question is, can the constable do his job while he's like this?" Sisko spoke straight to the heart of the matter. "I honestly don't see how he can."

"Odo is very resourceful," Dax protested. "I think it's really too early for us to assume that."

Sisko turned to Bashir, who hadn't said a word since the meeting got underway. "Doctor, what is Odo's condition? What exactly is it that he can and can't do?"

Bashir drummed his fingers lightly on the tabletop, obviously gathering his thoughts before saying, "If Odo were still human and he had, for example, lost the use of his limbs, I would consider what he's going through as - more psychological than anything else."

"What is that supposed to mean?" O'Brien asked sharply. He was more upset than he liked to let on, both on Kira and Odo's behalf. "Are you saying he's crazy?"

"No, not at all," Bashir said adamantly, shaking his head. "No, it's just that there's nothing physical preventing him from making a humanoid form - his readings are absolutely normal in that they match what they were when he was a healthy changeling. He can still manage some things - he has no trouble understanding what's said to him, so I assume he's structuring himself some sort of tympanic membrane to hear with, and his infrared sensors are able to distinguish what's around him the same as they did before when he was a changeling. Also, he's able to form very simple solid forms - pseudopods of a sort, if you would. He can push a button if he has to, or a keypad. He just can't seem to master the complexities of duplicating another life form, or a more complex inanimate object. It's like he's forgotten. Perhaps it's just a matter of his learning it again."

"It took him years the first time," Kira said softly. This was also the first time Kira had commented on the proceedings, and all eyes turned to her respectfully, and in commiseration. "I think I can answer the question about him doing his job, though. It isn't a question of whether or not he can do it, it's a question of whether or not he will. I don't think that he will -- not like this."

"Major," Sisko asked slowly, "what do you mean?"

"Odo has always ... prided himself on how well he does his job. Like this ... he'd be hard-pressed to do it at all. Besides ... how many of you have ever actually seen Odo in a liquid state other than circumstances when he couldn't avoid it?" Kira nodded at the blank looks that met her all around. "Exactly. Odo doesn't want to be seen like this. It would be like asking one of you to -- to work naked."

Sisko looked at her solemnly. "Then I'm temporarily putting Commander Worf in charge of station security. And I trust, Major, that you or Odo will let me know when Odo's ready to reassume his responsibilities."

"Of course," Kira said quietly. The meeting broke up almost immediately thereafter. Worf, not overly sensitive to matters outside his own Klingon honor, said to Kira, "It would be easiest if Odo gave me the codes to his personal security logs. When do you think he'll be ready to do that?"

Kira glared at Worf, secretly ecstatic at this ideal opportunity to lose her temper. "I think he'll want to do that when - what's that human expression? Oh, yes - when hell freezes over." As Worf stared at her in offended indignation, Kira added shortly, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go take my husband home."

The word husband hung oddly in the sudden, intense quiet, and Kira's outrage expanded to take in the entire room. "What's wrong with that? He's not sick - and I want him with me."

"Of course you do," Dax said, quiet but firm. "That's where he belongs."

"You're absolutely right," Bashir said strongly, with determined professional cheer. "It's the best place for him - it might even help him remember the things he's forgotten. For all I know, this is some sort of amnesia - he could get over it just like that." Bashir snapped his fingers, exuding a confidence than none of them felt.

"I sure hope so," Kira said quietly. "In the meantime, will you help me get him home?"

"I think we should just have him transported directly to your quarters," Bashir told her as they left Ops.

"That's probably a good idea," Kira agreed. She walked with her hands clasped behind her, obviously lost in thought.

"Have you told him yet?" Bashir asked hesitantly, as the silence lengthened between them.

Pausing just before reaching the door of the Infirmary, Kira looked at the young doctor, puzzled. "Told him? Told him what?"

"About your little one." Bashir nodded in the direction of Kira's abdomen. Kira's hand flew to the area indicated, stroking it absently.

"No, not yet. I thought it might be too much right now."

"I think some good news might be just what the doctor orders right now," Bashir observed. "Go ahead and tell him tonight."

"I'll see how he feels," Kira sidestepped any commitment on the subject. "Right now I just want to get him home."

"You keep saying that like it's some sort of - magic mantra," Bashir murmured as they stepped through the Infirmary door. Kira gave him a brief glare, before crossing over to the biobed that held Odo's container. Odo was bunched in the tightest space possible in one of the corners, somehow emanating abject misery without a single feature to project it. Kira reached into the container and touched him gently, and was rewarded by a sudden flow of golden substance around and up her fingers, as Odo clutched at her in a clear show of gratitude.

"We're ready, Julian," Kira said quietly.

"Wait ... before you go ..." Bashir handed Kira an oversized data-PADD with an unusually large touchpad. "It's the sort that children use, when they're first learning to write ... I thought that the controls might be easier for Odo to manipulate, for the time being."

"Julian, I ..." Suddenly at a loss, Kira gave the doctor a quick, fierce hug. "Thank you."

"Any time, Nerys. I wish ... I just wish I could do more." Bashir called for the computer to activate the transporter, and the familiar walls of Kira's quarters soon materialized around the major and her much-altered husband. Kira looked down into the specimen container at her side, and tried to fight down the sense of helplessness that seemed to seep into her very pagh. "Well, Odo," she said finally, "we're home."

Odo slowly expanded from the corner of the container, and then, almost faster than the eye could see, shot across the room and disappeared through the bedroom door, a gelid projectile of golden light. Startled, Kira ran across the room to follow him, poking her head cautiously through the door. The room seemed undisturbed, and Odo was nowhere to be seen.

"Odo?" Kira whispered. She entered the room cautiously, and went to investigate in the bath beyond.

Still no Odo. Kira looked around the room at a loss, and fear was quick to transmute into anger.

"Odo! You get the hell out of wherever you're hiding! Don't you dare do this to me!"

The was a long, still pause, during which Kira could hear the beating of her heart. A large, racking sob burst from her chest, like a strangled scream. "Dammit, I love you! Don't shut me out!"

Kira sank down on the bed and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly, vividly conscious of the new life making steady, stealthy progress in her womb. Tears poured down her cheeks, with Kira helpless to stop them.

Then she felt a gossamer touch against her cheek, and opened her eyes to see Odo's gelid form poised on the edge of the bed, while a single tendril of his substance wiped the tears from her cheeks. Kira gulped and reached out a tentative hand, touching him gently in turn.

"Oh, Odo," she murmured, "what a grie'korl this is." She used the Bajoran equivalent for something Sisko had said earlier when he called Odo's and her situation 'a total balls-up'. An additional protuberance snaked out from Odo and brushed the hair back from Kira's forehead, feeling rather like a heavy silken scarf brushing against her skin. Kira managed a wry, sweet smile, and, on an impulse, reached down to run her hands lightly over her abdomen.

"Remember how I told you I had some surprises for you? Well, the biggest one was this - I'm pregnant." Prophets, Kira thought in despair, if I could only read the expression on your face ... if you only had a face to read.

Odo seemed to shrink in on himself, drawing away from her a little on the bed. Is he angry? Hurt? As scared shitless as I am?

Kira forced herself to keep her tone level. "I guess the timing could be better - but we're going to have a baby." She gave the slight curve of her abdomen a final caress. Odo was absolutely still for a moment, before slipping across the bed to curl against Kira's belly, his substance taking up a gentle vibration, a soothing thrumming that she felt from her head to her toes. A wordless expression of love, reaching across the void that seemed to separate them.

"I know," Kira whispered. "I love you, too."

She reached out and touched Odo tenderly, even while she wondered if the abyss that loomed between them could ever be fully bridged.

"There you go, Major. One genuine shapeshifting apparatus, installed and ready to use."

Miles O'Brien stood back from Odo's sculpture-like 'jungle gym', newly reassembled in the middle of the main living area in what had once been Kira's quarters, and now housed Odo as well. O'Brien gave Kira his usual easy smile as he reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow. Kira smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Chief ... it's too hot in here for you to be doing this. I'm so cold all the time when I'm pregnant, I forget the rest of the station isn't freezing along with me. Let me get you something cold to drink."

"You're really starting to bloom there," O'Brien observed cheerfully, nodding in the direction of Kira's swollen abdomen. Kira nodded, running her hands over her belly.

"Only one more month to go, unless the human angle throws me for a loop," Kira commented. "Bashir doesn't think I'll go more than half a month over, though."

"I imagine that's a relief." O'Brien smiled, and accepted the glass of chilled juice that Kira provided him from the replicator. "I remember how you were that last month carrying Kyoshi."

Kira laughed. "You mean when he was so late? I remember, too - depressed, bitchy, and horny as hell."

O'Brien let out a hearty guffaw, which faded rather quickly. Kira blushed, remembering a few uncomfortable exchanges that had passed between them while she was carrying the O'Briens' baby, no doubt due to some fundamental pheromonal link caused by the fact that the child in her womb was Miles' own. Still, looking at him standing there, his sleeves pushed up his muscular forearms and sweat sheening his face, Kira felt an unwelcome rush of heat to her groin.

It's just hormones, she told herself sternly. We Bajoran women get like this when we're pregnant, it can't be helped. Of course, Kira added wryly, it would be nice if there was something I could do about it ...

"How's Odo?" O'Brien asked, in an awkward change of topic. "I don't think I've seen him since before ... well, since your wedding."

"Other than a few visits people made to the Infirmary, I don't think anyone has other than Bashir, Dax, and me."

"Dax?" O'Brien said curiously. "Odo will see Dax?" The chief sounded a little hurt.

"She's helping Julian come up with a better means for Odo to communicate. He's had to see her to do some testing on that."

"How's it coming?"

"Pretty well, I think ... after all, they've been working on it since almost the beginning. Three months now."

Three months, Kira thought in sudden despair. Three months of a relationship that seemed to hang in space, quite unchanging - not distant, exactly, in some ways still tender, but more frighteningly alien than Kira would have admitted to anyone, including, in the beginning, herself.

"Well, I'd best be getting on, Keiko will be putting supper on the table ... you'll have to join us one evening, pay Kyoshi a little visit."

"I'd like that," Kira said quietly. "Maybe in a week or two." It had been her standard answer for the last three months.

"Well, whenever - it's an open invitation."

"Thanks, Miles." Kira walked with O'Brien as far as the door, and stood watching wistfully as he hurried away, home to his wife and children.

Stepping back from the doorway with a sigh, Kira at last went in search of her husband, and was pleased to find him at the computer console in the bedroom, draped over the data screen and keypad like a blanket. No doubt a lot of security reports were being absorbed under that blanket ... Kira rested her hands lightly against Odo's surface, combing his substance with gentle fingers. As he formed protrusions to caress her palms, Kira said softly:

"Miles is finished setting up your shapeshifting apparatus -- and I'm going to take a nap." She watched with a stab of rare amusement as Odo detached himself from the console and launched himself across the room toward the door to the living area, before she turned to lower herself awkwardly on the bed. Lying on her back, Kira ran her hands automatically over her swollen abdomen, then more hesitantly over her breasts. She let out a sigh.

<Pong!> The doorcom sounded a soft, clear peal. Propping herself up on her elbows, Kira called, "Who is it?"

"It's Dax. May I come in?"

Oh, good, Kira thought tiredly, at least Odo won't be hiding in the ventilation duct again. Flopping back down, Kira responded, "Come!"

"You look like you've beached yourself," Dax observed cheerfully, entering the room and coming to sit on the edge of the bed. "How is he?"

"Lively," Kira assured her friend, "very lively." She nodded in invitation, and Dax in turn rested her hand on Kira's distended abdomen.

"Oh, my ... feels like somersaults." Dax shook her with an amused grimace. "Nerys, you have to start having more sex. It tires them out ... believe me, it may have been a few lifetimes ago, but I still remember!"

"So, what brings you by?" Kira pointedly changed the subject. Dax studied her from under raised eyebrows.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing ... Julian seemed to be worried about you last time I spoke with him."

"Really?" Kira turned her concentration to a careful study of her fingernails. "I can't think why - I'm fine."

"Nerys, you're Bajoran, you're pregnant ..." Dax leaned in closer, until they were almost nose-to- nose. "And you aren't getting any."

Kira threw up her hands in exasperation, looking away. "Jadzia, this is really none of your business."

"I'm your friend," Dax said quietly. "You're running the risk of becoming seriously ill."

"I can handle it myself!" Kira hauled herself off the bed and crossed to a chair on the other side of the room, where she lowered herself awkwardly. Dax pursued her, relentless as a bloodhound.

"Nerys, you can't help it! It's the way you vascularize! The blood vessels in your reproductive system are becoming dangerously congested! Now, what happened to that holoprogram Julian prescribed for you when you were carrying Kyoshi?"

"I couldn't use that now!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Because it was a holoprogram of Edon! I'm not with Edon anymore!"

"Fine! I'll design you a holoprogram of Odo!"

Kira looked at Dax with widening eyes as the dam prepared to burst. "I don't want a holoprogram!" she screamed. "I want Odo!" Kira thrust out her fists in front of her, clawing helplessly at the air. Dax caught the grasping hands in hers, holding them together in a tight grasp.

"Nerys ..." Dax gave Kira a few moments to collect herself. "Why can't you and Odo-?"

"What?" Kira stared at her friend, frozen. She asked, her tone sharp, "What are we supposed to do?"

"Well," Dax ventured, "you could - touch each other."

"No." Kira shook her head. "Not that I would mind!" she hastened to add. "I wouldn't mind, but Odo -"Kira stopped abruptly, looking away.

"You think Odo would mind?" Dax asked incredulously.

"I think he might."

"Why would he? He certainly wanted to make love to you before!"

"That was different. He was human then. Dax, I'll be fine. I just don't want to talk about this."

"Nerys, Odo was in love with you a long time before he was human. What do you think that meant to him then? That he wanted to spend the nights with you playing kistrel?"

Dax, with at least two clever strategists among her prior hosts, knew when to strike, and when to withdraw. With a soft, "Think about it," she kissed Kira on the forehead and left.

After Dax had gone, Kira hoisted herself awkwardly to her feet and returned to the bed, determined to re-embark on the nap her friend had interrupted. She once again ran her hands over her body, a look of grim determination knitting her brow. It isn't like I've never had to do something like this before. I just never had to do it with my lover sitting in the next room.

Kira sighed, letting her hands fall to her side. She knew perfectly well, in theory, the truth of Dax's words - for a pregnant Bajoran, sex wasn't just a pleasant pastime, it was a necessity. Her species having decided for some reason in the far distant past that survival lay in pair-bonding, her body needed the stimulation that only regular sexual interaction could give it to guarantee her continued health during her pregnancy, and to get her ready to go into labor. Kira could well remember her days in the Resistance, when more than one pregnant woman in her Resistance cell had lost her husband to violence or disease ... and the necessary compromises that had ensued. Generally speaking, unless the woman in question had some prior secondary attachment that lent itself to establishing a sexual relationship, Shakaar Edon had ended up doing the honors. Kira could still hear in her mind's ear the muffled sounds of feminine passion entirely divorced from any gentler pleasure ... and the sobs of grief and loss that frequently followed.

Maybe that's what went wrong with Edon and me, Kira thought, thankful to be distracted by a more academic concern, back when I was pregnant with Kyoshi. She reflected on her memories of Shakaar's haggard face the mornings after those tragedy-necessitated encounters. He thought that was all behind him - and suddenly, there I was, another pregnant woman carrying a child he had no part in making. I imagine that was enough to emasculate anyone - even Edon.

A soft movement on the foot of the bed distracted Kira from her reflections, and she glanced around her distended belly to see Odo poised near her feet, extending a soft tendril of his flesh to gently encase her ankle. So much love, so much caring in that simple touch - Kira smiled and said, "Come on up."

Instead of moving along her side, Odo slid so that his substance was draped over Kira's ankles, and began to tentatively ooze his way up. Kira couldn't restrain a gasp at the delicate, enticingly erotic sensation like heavy, animate silk creeping across her flesh. "You were listening to Dax and me, weren't you?" she whispered, involuntarily folding her arms across her chest. Then she forced herself to lower them back to her side, taking a deep breath before she took hold of the loose tunic that covered her and wiggled it off over her head.

I honestly thought I didn't care a bit, Kira mused ruefully, even while she continued to prepare herself, tossing the tunic to one side and rearranging the pillows behind her before sliding her thumbs under the waistband of her underpants. It isn't that I actually mind, it's just that it's so -- different. I guess I must really be the provincial type Dax is always teasing me about. Still, I bet even Dax has never done anything quite like this.

Nonetheless, there was an undeniable, silky sensuality in Odo's touch against her bare skin, the way his substance flowed lightly around her torso and then up to caress her stomach and breasts, setting up a soft sucking motion against her rapidly hardening nipples. Pausing in his progress while Kira pushed down her underwear, Odo then poured past her fingers to encompass her thighs, spilling over her pubis to the waiting depths beneath, his gelid form taking on more hardness and density as it swelled inexorably to fill her. Kira's orgasm slammed into her with a suddenness that was almost violent, and she shrieked and screamed in the intensity of her passion.

Then, it was over. Kira ran her hands through the amber gel that covered her body, and burst into tears.

She could feel Odo tensing, contracting, beginning to withdraw from her. "No!" Kira exclaimed, "don't -"She clutched at him, even while wondering how she could ever hold on to him should he decide to ooze through her fingers. "I want you here, I need you. I just wish ... I wish I could see your face ..."

Hormones. So Kira dismissed her own anguish, as she cried as though her heart would break.

"Doctor ..." Sisko's question came without warning, as he and Julian were chatting companionably over bowls of soup at the Replimat, "how is Major Kira? She says she's fine, but she doesn't look well."

Bashir paused between bites to give the matter his full consideration. "Well, she's actually a bit better than she was ... she isn't showing such high levels of reproductive vascular congestion, although she's not out of danger ... she waited an awfully long time before doing something about it, and she's in such a low state of mind, anyway."

Sisko, who hadn't been expecting nearly so technical a response, lowered his spoon to stare at his chief medical officer in concern. "In danger ... what exactly are you talking about, Doctor?"

"Oh!" Bashir blinked, surprised. "Bajoran women are prone to something called congestive reproductive failure, when - when certain factors aren't present in their personal lives."

"Factors? What factors?" Sisko looked at Bashir sharply, wondering why the doctor was hedging.

Bashir sighed, looking around him and lowering his voice before continuing. "Captain, when your - when you and your late wife were expecting Jake, did you by any chance find her - particularly appealing?"

A soft, warm look of remembrance flitted through Sisko's eyes. "Oh, yes," he affirmed softly. "Very much so."

"Which is a very normal response - it made you more loving, it made you more protective. Physically, it also helped guarantee that - that your wife would remain relaxed, and consequently find it easier to deliver."

Sisko's dark eyes narrowed with dawning comprehension. "So you're saying that -"

"Bajoran women, the way they vascularize with their fetuses - well, it's complicated, but what it all boils down to is that when a Bajoran woman is pregnant, she has to be sexually active. There are other specifics ... I can give you some data PADDs if you're interested ..."

"I don't think that will be necessary," Sisko interjected quickly. "Doctor - Major Kira was pregnant before under rather unusual circumstances. How was she - I mean, I assume you had to come up with a solution for this problem before."

"Oh, I did - that is, Dax and I did. I prescribed a holoprogram for her - she used it three times a week."

"A holoprogram." Sisko's eyes widened as he considered the severity of the circumstances that would drive Kira to use such a holoprogram, at Quark's of all places, and blushed as he recalled a certain funding request of Bashir's that he had rejected, one to install a small holosuite in conjunction with the Infirmary. "Don't you - doesn't she still have it?"

"Umm ... wrong partner," Bashir said briefly. Sisko nodded slowly, suddenly embarrassed to have made such personal inquiries into one of his officer's lives. "Besides, she and the - she and her husband seem to have finally worked something out."

Sisko wouldn't even begin to speculate. "So, in other words, things should be all right now."

"That remains to be seen." Bashir refused to display his usual optimism. "She left it until it was awfully late. Her body temperature was somewhat elevated during her last physical - I nearly kept her in the infirmary, except that would have ended any possibility of her - her continuing to work on the problem herself."

"This 'congestive reproductive failure' you're talking about ... what exactly can it do?"

"Do?" Bashir's eyes widened as he contemplated the possibilities. "At the very least it can necessitate a C-section. At the worst ..." Bashir shook his head.

"At worst?" Sisko prodded.

"At worst it could kill her. And her baby."

Like a pool of liquid sunset, the changeling the Cardassians had dubbed odo'ital spilled from the foot of the bed of the Bajoran woman who was his wife, and considered his choices.

Kira lay quietly, her breaths a steady, deep soughing as she slept - in the end, she always slept. They made love, she cried, and then she fell asleep, exhausted by the passion that had racked her body. Odo suspected that what he had overheard Dax saying was true. When he sometimes curled up against Kira's swollen belly in the aftermath - by no stretch of the imagination could it be termed the afterglow - the baby in her womb had quieted faster than Kira herself, presumably tired out by his mother's exertions.

Odo felt rather racked as well, by guilt at his own pleasure. Does Nerys have any idea, he wondered, how marvelous it feels to me when I touch her like this? These past few days - how much I've enjoyed being with her this way, feeling her, tasting her, loving her with every cell of my body, caressing and getting to know her every pore, every hair, every hidden fold? Does she realize that the warm liquid that spills from her is as close as I've come to recapturing the pure physical joy of being one with the Great Link?

No, of course she didn't know - how could she? She only knew that the child within her came closer to birth every day, and that the husband she had trusted to care for her, to nurture her, had proven unequal to the task. Yet she still loved him, smiled at him, called out his name at the height of her passion - Odo's liquid form shuddered as he contracted in a bit on himself.

The guilt. The guilt alone felt like it would consume him -- but would the pain of the only other choice that was available to him be even quicker to destroy him?

Kira moaned in her sleep, and Odo crept back up on the bed, noting with concern her flushed cheeks. He extended a tendril of gelid flesh, brushing her face tenderly - Kira opened her eyes and smiled, her loving gaze piercing him like a flame that would burn him to nothing but a heap of charred ash.

Now. The voice in his mind would brook no objections - it was as though it were the voice of the Prophets themselves. She is your Link, you have no other. Kira Nerys is your life.

Kira, in marked contrast, felt only calm as she looked at her husband, and remembered with a surprised rush of pleasure how his silken substance felt against her skin, caressing her breasts and her thighs and her soft, secret places. With it came a stab of remorse ... he makes love to me, and I act like he's beaten me. Crying my eyes out ... for what? He loves me ... and it feels wonderful. With some amazement, Kira realized that what she said was true. For the first time she contemplated the unusual turn her sex life had taken with anticipation rather than apprehension as she reached out to Odo, combing him gently with her fingertips. Her mouth curved in an apologetic moue.

"I'm sorry ... I haven't meant to be so ... ungrateful." Kira continued her delicate combing, her voice soft and contrite. "It's just that ... it's hard to explain. It's just that - we all have dreams of how we think our lives should go. I never had many, at least not during the Occupation ... it seemed to just be asking for trouble. But when the Cardassians left, I started dreaming again ... and then, with you ...

"You just get pictures in your mind, things you expect to see ... I'll get this image of you, holding our son in your arms ... only you don't have arms to hold him in, and it startles me, just a little. And it's hard to let it go ... but I do love you, Odo. I'll always love you."

Kira smiled through the tears that were beginning to once again spill down her cheeks. "So why don't we try that again?" she said softly. "I'm sure Dr. Bashir would say I could use the overtime."

In response Odo curved sensuously against her, shaping himself gently to her breasts and setting up a soft vibrating motion. Kira moaned a little, arching her back appreciatively.

"Besides, I don't know why I'm so concerned about your face ... it's not like we could do anything in a position where I could actually see it at this point." Kira ran her hands through Odo to stroke the curve of her swollen belly, and murmured in contentment as Odo spilled past it to fondle the area between her thighs. Kira sighed and surrendered herself to his touch, with a sudden sense of tranquillity. He was still her tienju-pagh, her gift from the Prophets. And his caresses were still filled with love.

Moaning softly with her release, it took a moment for Kira to become aware of the fact that Odo was slipping away from her, sliding off the bed to move to the center of the room, where he formed a column of amber gel. Turning on her side, Kira watched him curiously, her eyes widening as Odo began, unmistakably, to shift.

It was the longest time she had ever seen him take to change shape, back when he could do so easily and readily - this, on the other hand, seemed to be a careful, painstaking realignment of cells, almost as though he was restructuring each one individually, albeit faster than the eye could see. Kira sat up slowly, barely able to breathe as she watched ... reaching out for her combadge on the nightstand, she tapped it and called, "Kira to Bashir!"

"Major?" Bashir's voice came back alert and concerned. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine - but something's going on with Odo. Can you beam to our quarters, now?"

"I'm on my way."

There was the hum of the transporter effect in the adjoining living area as Dr. Bashir, good as his word, arrived less than a moment later. Kira belatedly remembered her lack of clothing and gathered the blankets around her, all the while never taking her eyes off her husband. Bashir froze in the doorway, his gaze also riveting on the former constable. He then walked slowly to Kira's side, his tricorder out and scanning Odo the whole way.

"He seems to be shifting," Bashir murmured, "but it's different from any shift I've ever seen - not that I've gotten to observe that many. But something's definitely happening ... we just have to wait and see, Nerys."

After two hours had passed, Bashir left long enough to advise Captain Sisko of the situation. Kira herself never moved, except to throw on a robe and answer certain demands of her body ... in fact, she was sitting in almost the same exact position two days later, waiting for Bashir to return from taking a much-needed rest and a shower, trying to focus her attention on a data PADD rather than the nerve-racking vision presented by her husband. Tricky as it was, she was managing fairly well, simply because the changes Odo was undergoing were so subtle. She was actually starting to absorb some of the material pertaining to Bajoran/human hybridization and the hybrid's developmental stages when there was a sudden flurry of movement that caught her attention. Kira looked up to see - Odo.

Still frozen, unmoving, stood the humanoid body she had come to know so well - lean, lithely muscled, his skin pale, with very little body hair. None to speak of on his chest, only a thin line on his lower belly, leading to his -

Kira's eyes widened, and flew to Odo's face, focusing on his nose. Ridges, she thought, Bajoran ridges, on his nose and on his - Then the realization slammed into her. Sweet Prophets, he's able to take a humanoid shape again. Odo is -

Odo finally moved, his blue eyes fixing themselves on Kira's face. His hands reached upward and outward, seemingly grasping at the air. He gasped out the words -

"I am of Bajor!"

- before collapsing in what for all shapes and appearances looked like a dead faint.

Kira hauled herself to her feet, slamming her hand against her combadge as she did so.

"Kira to Bashir! Emergency!"

The transporter brought Bashir back to Kira's side in less than a heartbeat, his wavy hair still damp from his recent shower. He knelt quickly next to Odo, his med scanner already out and working.

"Major," Bashir said slowly, "he seems to have just - passed out."

"Is he all right?" Kira angled herself down to her knees, wondering briefly if she would live to regret it.

"He seems to be - fine." Bashir took an empty ampoule from his medikit, and pressed it against Odo's bare arm. After the clear cylinder filled with blood, he pulled it away and looked at it thoughtfully, shaking it a few times.

The blood stayed red.

"Major," Bashir said slowly, "your husband is a humanoid again."

"What do you mean?" Kira's gaze remained riveted to Odo, seemingly trying to drink in his face and form with her eyes.

"I mean that ... all of his readings are humanoid. Human, although his appearance is somewhat more -"Bashir's glance flickered involuntarily over Odo's body, his face reddening a little as it did so."-somewhat more Bajoran."

Odo let out a low moan, and both Kira and Bashir leaned over him anxiously. His blue eyes fluttered open, seeking and fixing themselves to Kira's face - Bashir drew back a little and watched as Kira let her hand slide, unconsciously sensuous, up Odo's side and across his chest until she could cradle his cheek in her hand. Smiling, after one final, quick scan, the doctor got lithely to his feet and slipped from the room. Neither Kira nor Odo ever saw him go.

"Nerys," Odo whispered, his voice hoarse. "Are you all right?"

Kira laughed at the absurdity of the question. "Me? I'm fine." She reached down and captured his free hand in hers, pressing it to her belly. "So is our son."

"He's kicking," Odo observed faintly. "Does it hurt?"

"Sometimes," Kira confessed. "But right now it feels - marvelous." She leaned over as far as her distended abdomen would allow, taking Odo's face in her hands. "Oh, Prophets, I've missed -"

Kira stopped herself before the you could come out, realizing how tactless it was. But Odo gave a little smile, taking one of her hands in his and pressing his lips against the palm. "I know," he murmured. "I've missed you, too. Missed being able to talk to you. To - to share with you, like this."

"Odo," Kira whispered, "what happened? Do you know?"

"Of course," Odo said simply, pulling himself into a sitting position. He reached out and put his hands on Kira's shoulders, drawing her gently toward him, resting his forehead against hers. "I just - I'm sorry, Nerys, I couldn't decide."

"Decide?" Kira drew back so she could look into Odo's eyes, brushing the hair back from Odo's forehead and noticing with amusement that it had returned to the familiar style copied from Dr. Mora. "Decide what, Odo?"

"The Founders ... when they healed my injuries ... I couldn't remember at first, I thought I was locked in liquid form ... but they gave me the information I needed to change into this." Odo stretched out his arms, looking down at them quizzically. "But they also made it clear that once I did it ... I couldn't change back."

"What?" Kira stared at him with widening eyes.

"I had to choose between being like them ... and being like you."

"Oh, Prophets," Kira whispered. Her mouth fell open in a silent 'O'.

"I'm sorry ... sorry that it took me so long." Odo stared down at his hands, unable to meet Kira's eyes.

"You chose me?"

Odo looked up, startled at Kira's strangled question. "Of course I chose you," he said simply. "It was just ... hard to let go of the other. I kept hoping that maybe - I or Dr. Bashir or Dax might come up with a way I could go back to being what I was, able to move freely between the two. But I couldn't let it go any longer. I've let it go too long now as it is."

"Odo, this is your life we're talking about! Of course you didn't take too long! A decision like that -"

"You needed me before now. And I wasn't there for you."

"I'll be fine." Kira was blunt. "Besides, it's not your fault that we haven't been having sex all along."

"How could you be expected to adjust to something like that overnight?" Odo shrugged, a sad little smile embellishing his puckish features. "Besides, what you need is this." He took her hand and pressed it against that which lay at the juncture between his thighs, causing Kira to gasp even while her hand moved in an involuntary caress. She managed a wry grin in response.

"We could have managed." Nonetheless, a rush of color flooded her cheeks, and Kira's lips parted with her accelerated breathing. "Dammit, I love you. The sex isn't that important." Damn hormones, don't make a liar of me, she pleaded, trying to resist the rush of heat to her groin. Her nipples tightened in blatant defiance of her wishes. It proved her final undoing when Odo lowered his mouth to hers, drinking her in through a slow, sensual kiss.

"I'm taking you to bed, wife," Odo asserted, getting gracefully to his feet and drawing Kira up after him. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

The final elements of a three-month "Klingon occupation" banished, Odo sat down at the desk in the Security Office and gave a soft, contented sigh. Commander Worf had been a dutiful but unimaginative custodian, meaning that a number of details had disappeared from the daily security routine simply because they never occurred to him -- the Cardassian tailor, Garak, finished with his six month's confinement while Odo had been 'incapacitated', had regaled Odo with a number of Worf's foibles over lunch Still, things were more or less in order, now that the bat'telh hanging over the inside door had been removed and sent on its way with its relieved owner.

"I have been -- most impressed with the order and precision of this operation," Worf had admitted grudgingly, honor-bound to speak the truth. "I did not understand before the magnitude of your duties here ... I commend you, Odo."

Yes, life could be unexpectedly sweet, even for one locked in a solid form.

Odo maintained that belief until he activated his com panel and began to survey the messages that awaited him. Almost at once his blood ran cold as a familiar name assaulted him.

The message was from Central Security on Bajor. It read:

"The Dominion has requested return of the prisoner, Chalan Aroya, to Dominion custody, to be tried for crimes committed against the Dominion and its allies. Since the party in question is being held on Bajor due to criminal acts perpetrated on Deep Space Nine against one of its citizens, we defer this matter to your disposition."

"No one here wants to touch it, so we're dropping it back in your lap," Odo silently translated. Then he perused the message's next paragraph, his eyes widening.

"The prisoner has thrown herself on the mercy of the court and requested immunity from extradition, citing fear for her personal safety. We request permission to transfer the prisoner to your jurisdiction, pending your final decision."

Odo studied those last words for a long time, before finally tapping his combadge. Kira came promptly in answer to his summons, puffing a little at the exertion of her rapid waddle from Ops.

Odo's face was torn between an amused smile and a concerned frown. "You shouldn't be panting," he observed, finally coming down on the side of the scowl. "What does Bashir say?"

"He says the baby is pressing against my diaphragm and not to worry about it," Kira retorted. "My vascularization patterns are practically normal -- still a little congestion, but he doesn't think I'll have any problems come delivery time." Kira gave her husband a saucy grin. "And he said to tell you to keep up the good work."

Odo responded with a wry grimace. "Why do I get the feeling I should be putting a bed in the storage room here?"

Kira laughed in return. She lowered herself carefully into one of the chairs that stood before the desk, stretching her feet out in front of her with a sigh. "So, why did want to see me? You sounded like it was important."

"It might be," Odo said briefly. He transferred the message from his comlink to a dataPADD, and handed the PADD to Kira. "Take a look at that."

Kira surveyed the information carefully, her brow furrowing. "I don't understand ... why doesn't she want to go back? It sounds like a Dominion ruse to get her released to me."

"As it did to me when I initially read it. But now I'm beginning to wonder ... are they concerned with getting her released, or are they concerned about what she might happen to reveal to us? In any case, it seems that Aroya doesn't think she'll receive any kind of favor."

"Well, she did fail at her assignment," Kira observed. "Perhaps the Dominion is ... less than kind to its failed operatives."

She studied the PADD further, and exclaimed, "The authorities on Bajor want her to come here? Why?"

"I suspect it isn't so much a matter of them wanting her here, as wanting her 'not there', in case the Dominion decides to send the Jem'Hadar to claim her." Odo nodded solemnly in response to the startled alarm in Kira's eyes. "I have to admit, I do want to speak to her before we decide whether or not to extradite her." To Kira's questioning look he added, "I want to ask her some questions -- I need to understand why she acted the way she did. The Founders had already enacted their sentence on me ... why would they think it necessary to harm you? To punish me further? In some ways they're the ones who made it possible for you and me to be together in the first place ... why would they move against you?"

"How about pure spite?" Kira bit off the words. "They wanted me and our baby dead, Odo ... humanoids, 'solids', we're just like insects to them. Crushing the life out of us ... it doesn't mean any more to them than swatting a bug."

"Still, Chalan Aroya was carefully prepared to be their spider," Odo mused. "And I for one would be very interested to know why she's so convinced that they mean to step on her now."

Continue reading "About Face".

Copyright 1996 by Carolyn R. Fulton. Paramount Pictures, VIACOM et al owns all rights to STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE and the characters and universe depicted within. This is a work of fan fiction, designed solely for the enjoyment of fans of the Star Trek universe, and no infringement of Paramount's copyright or trademarks is intended. The following may be reproduced electronically or in single hard copy for your own enjoyment only, providing that all disclaimer material remains in place.

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