This is set after Children Of Time. Yes, I know I haven't seen it, but Australian fans won't see this until next year, if we're lucky. This works on the premise that Kira knows how the alternate Odo felt about her, but isn't sure about how our Odo feels. I love unrequited love scenes.<giggle>
by F. Carthew
Kira sat alone in Quark's, her fourth glass of Pulas in front of her, and stared out of the window. She'd been coming into the bar every night for the last week, and although she knew that everyone else in the command crew was increasingly worried about her, the one person she wanted to be concerned apparently couldn't give a damm. Sighing, she emptied the glass and poured another from one of the bottles on the table, when a hand gently closed over hers and urged her hand to put the bottle down. She looked up and smiled.
"Dax, what can I do for you?" Her hand was as steady as a rock as she drank again, and not for the first time, the Trill wondered how Kira could drink so much and not be affected.
"I just thought that you might want a friend's company tonight, while you try to forget whatever it is you keep drinking yourself into oblivion over." Jadzia smiled brightly, as she studied the lined face of her friend with deepening concern.
"Ahh." Kira glanced up and smiled a little. "Well, thank you for your concern, but I'd rather be alone if you don't mind."
"I mind." Dax leaned in closer. "Benjamin is worried about you, Julian is about ready to order you to take a holiday, Worf and Chief have noticed it, and Odo keeps expecting to have to drag you back to your quarters." She saw her companions cheeks flush a dull red at the mention of the security officer, but decided to stick with the gentle approach. Well, as gentle as a 300 year old joined Trill can get. "What are you drinking anyway?" Jadzia had finally glanced at the unlabelled bottles, but couldn't work out what was in them.
"Pulas." Kira took another deep swig and refilled her glass for the fourth time.
"Pulas!" Dax picked her jaw up off the floor. "Nerys, the only thing stronger than this stuff is Romulan Ale! What are you trying to do, give Julian more work to do when he has to give you a new liver?"
"Well, you have to admit that he'd be good at it." She smiled nonchalantly. "After all, he did manage to splice enough DNA out of the thirty-five of us to create a viable colony."
Dax's cheeks warmed. Some of the alternate Julian's splices had been...different, to say the least. "He did what he had to to make sure the colony survived." Her words had a hollow ring to them, one which Kira pounced on immediately.
"He spliced our DNA together, Dax!" Kira forgot about her drink for a moment.
"Hey, imagine how Benjamin and Worf feel!!" Dax grinned and after a few moments, so did Kira. Unfortunately, as she relaxed she also remembered her drink, and Dax sighed again. "Come on, Nerys, what's wrong? You haven't drunk like this in a long time."
"Since Bareil died, I think." Kira leaned back. She wanted to tell, and Dax was probably the only person she knew who could actually be trusted to keep a secret, even is she was the station gossip. She leaned back in. "Do you remember when the alternate Odo and I went for a walk?"
"Sure, we couldn't find where the two of you had gone. Benjamin started to get worried about you."
"We were just talking," Nerys stared down at her drink, suddenly nervous. "Odo told me something, he woke something up in me, and now I don't know how to handle it."
"What did he tell you?" A small thrill raced through her spine, and Dax silently prayed that Kira's next words might be what she hoped.
"He told me that he loved me. And that he'd loved me for a long time before I died, since he'd first seen me on the station." She gulped down another drink. "He wanted me to know how he felt before we left, before we changed the future and he didn't exist anymore." The relief she felt was incredible as the weight of her secret lifted from her soul. "The tough part is that...I love him too. I think I have for years, but he never seemed to want more than friendship, so I looked elsewhere for companionship." She shrugged. "Without success. But now, now I'd give anything to be able to tell Odo how I feel about him."
"Oh Nerys, that's wonderful." Dax was grinning like a maniac. At last Kira knew how Odo felt! It might have taken him 150 years to get around to telling her, but he'd finally done it. "So, what's the problem? I mean, you care for him deeply, and it's not like Shakaar is in your life that way anymore, is it?"
"No." Kira had a half-smile on her face, but it quickly disappeared. "It's just that the Odo we met was an alternate Odo. What if our Odo doesn't feel the same way?" Dax now understood why Kira had been pouring alcohol down her throat for the past week, and she gently reached out to grasp Kira's hands.
"Nerys, I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty that our Odo feels exactly the same way about you as you do about him." A twinkle came into her eyes. "And if you'd like the opinion of a three-hundred-year-old romantic, I can't think of a better couple than you and Odo."
Kira sighed and smiled wanly. "Maybe. But until Odo shows me otherwise, I think I'll just keep my mouth shut." She stretched tiredly. "At least with Edon out of the picture I don't need to worry about a guilt complex if Odo and I do become better friends."
"Always a comforting thought." Dax reached out and gently but firmly removed both bottles and the half full glass from Kira's grasp and gave them to a passing waiter. "But I don't think you're going to find the answer at the bottom of a bottle."
"No, you're probably right." Nerys grinned impishly. "Maybe I should start a bar brawl so Odo has to drag me to my quarters like you said."
"But Benjamin would get upset, and then I'd have to tell him what you've told me." Dax was grinning too. "But for now, I'll just tell him everything's okay."
"Good. And now, I think I'd better get to bed, before Julian does force me to take that holiday." The two women left the bar, laughing jovially. But Kira never saw the sly wink that Dax gave to the shadowy figure of the Changeling, hidden in a dark recess near the bar's doorway.