Disclaimer: Paramount is a god, and we are but small gnats in the scheme of life. Please don't hurt us!
Cath Allan and Felicity Carthew own this idea. Read and enjoy, but no stealing!
Posted 3/5/98
Quark glanced curiously at Kira as he watched her swagger into the bar. Curiously, he hadn't seen her for several days, not that she was ever a regular drinker. Kira preffered to drink her alcohol in private rather than in public.
"Quark!" The Ferengi scuttled towards the Bajoran, slowing as he saw a strange light in her eyes. Kira nodded towards the upper level holosuites, a small smile playing around her lips. "Are any of the holosuites free?"
"I think suite number four is available." Glancing at her again, he took stock of her strange expression anmd trailed a finger down one ear. "Do you have a particular program in mind Major? I have several new holo-simulations that just arrived, if you'd like to look at them." Kira shot him a glance and he added hastily "I can make any modifications you like."
Kira wandered up the stairs slowly, nodding her head. "I might be pursuaded," a hand latched onto Quark's jacket and pulled him into the holosite with her, her other hand caressing his ear, "With the right company, of course."
Quark managed a faint sqeak before being hauled into the room.
Odo sighed and turned away from the bar, outwardly calm but inwardly dying. *My Nerys* he thought sadly, *Just went into a holosuite with Quark!* Unheeded, his feet continued on their usual daily route along the Promenade as his heart broke.
He'd long ago given up hope of ever being more than a friend to the woman he loved. Twice he'd been sure he would see her married and out of his reach forever, and both times the relationship had ended and she had remained unmarried and on the station. And, as far as Odo was concerned, unloved except by him.
He took a last, longing look back towards the holosuites then put it out of
his mind for now. He would harrass Quark about it later. Besides, Dax and Bashir
seemed to racing around looking for something. Odo mused for a moment or two
then shrugged and strolled in his fellow officers direction.
Dax, Bashir, and Odo ran towards the bar, skidding out of peoples way in their rush. "What I want to know," Dax managed to pant as she avoided a party of Andorians, "Is how Nerys came in contact with this kid anyway."
"Well, you know that she loves children." Julian skirted a Bajoran couple and flashed a quick smile then darted into the bar looking for Kira. "And the boy was Bajoran after all. I guess she just thought he needed a hug. Anyway, no-one knew he had chicken pox then."
"So now we have a Bajoran female running around spreading a highly contagious disease, that has devestating side-effects on Bajorans." Odo grunted, noting that Quark was also nowhere in sight. "Bajoran females in particular."
Bashir cleared his throat and headed towards the second level. "Which is exactly why we have to find her, and soon! She could be infecting half the station by now, just by touching someone."
Dax tapped Odo on the shoulder. "Where's Quark?"
Odo was about to answer, when a horrified scream interrupted. The trio looked up just in time to see Quark hurtling towards them, his jacket ripped and torn, and his face white.
The Ferengi threw himself at Odo's feet. "Save me!" He huddled closer, whimpering. "For the love of latinum, do *something* about that woman!"
Odo quirked an eyebrow at his nemisis, as Dax and Bashir looked cautiously uinto the holosuite. "Woman? I thought you *liked* women."
"Not ones with bright purple spots!" Quark huddled even closer and Kira appeared in the doorway, lounging intently and batting her eyelids.
"Quarky! Come back, we were about to have some fun."
Odo hurumphed and stepped forward, disentangling himself from the gibbering wreck of a barkeep. "Major, would you please accompany us to the infirmary. Doctor Bashir needs to examine you immediately."
"Aw, but Quarky and I were about to have *such* fun." She sashayed forward sugestively and trailed a finger down Odo's chest. "You can join us if you like."
"Quark is coming too." She gripped the Ferengi's jacket firmly and
hauled him to his feet. "He might be sick too, so you'll have plenty of
company."
"You're absolutely *sure* it's not going to be fatal," re-stated Odo, taking up his usual 'Constable' stance.
"I'd bet my life on it," soothed Julian.
"You just did, you know," murmured Dax.
Quark, who hadn't heard what Dax said, relaxed considerably, "Thank *Cash*..."
"I wasn't asking for *you*," growled Odo.
Kira lurched from her biobed to hug Odo, "Comfortable," she murmured seductively, "I have an idea..."
"Really," Odo glanced ceilingward, "and what would *that* be?"
Kira grinned, "You. Me. Bed. Now." She waggled her eyebrows at him, "We could try and - link?"
"Major," Odo sighed, "You're not well."
"Ah-ah-ah, you call me 'Nerys'. Naughty Comfortable."
"Captain, she assulted me!" Quark scurried around his bar, making sure that the customers were happy and the latinum was still flowing into his accounts. "I want her charged, whatever her excuse!"
"Quark, she was infected with a very dangerous disease," Sisko's placid persona was beginning to suffer the strain of trying to bargain with the Ferengi. "She wasn't responsible for her actions."
"She knew what she was doing Captain, believe me." Quark smirked slightly and Sisko sighed. The problem was the little toad was right. Kira was in deep trouble, and there was little that anyone could do, except try and get Quark to drop the charges. "Of course, I might be persuaded to forget the whole thing if Major Kira is willing to compensate me with, say, three bars of latinum?" It was a big ask, and Quark knew it. He glanced at Sisko, who's eyes had glazed over by now, then turned away -- to walk straight into Commander Dax.
Dax smiled at Quark with relief. "There you are! I thought you'd be in pieces by now after Odo had finished with you." She sauntered up to the bar and winked at Sisko as Quark turned bright pink and hurried after her.
"Finished with me? What do you mean? Why is Odo after..." His voice faded away as he closed his eyes and shuddered.
Sisko took the opportunity to bump up the stakes. "And when he hears about you wanting compensation, he's going to be even angrier I can tell you." The human smiled suddenly. "But at least Rom will inherit a bar in excellant condition. And of course he'll probably donate the profits to the Bajoran Orphans Fund."
"Donate..." Quark felt like he was about to faint. The last thing he needed was an angry Odo on his tail. He reached out and grabbed Sisko's sleeve. "Forget about the compensation, she was sick, she didn't know what she was doing, it wasn't her fault!" He turned to Dax, panic ettched on his face. "Tell Odo I didn't do anything! I ran out as soon as she took off her shirt! I never touched her!"
Dax sighed and stood. "Alright Quark, I'll tell him." She nodded to Sisko and they both left the bar, leaving a much-relived Ferengi polishing his glasses.
Ben leaned towards his science officer as they strolled towards the Infirmary. "Why would Odo be worried about Quark? He hasn't left Kira's side since Bashir managed to get the Chicken Pox under control."
Dax stopped and looked at her friend in amazement for several seconds, then
continued towards the Infirmary, replying cryptically. "If you haven't
worked it out yet, I'm not going to tell you."
Kira woke from her nap to the *Smell*. It was the only odour in her long experience with unpleasantness that had ever deserved a capital letter. She groaned as she surfaced completely from sleep, "*Must* you do that?"
Odo continued dabbing at each of her sores with a cloth soaked in a generous measure of the stuff that Julian insisted would work. Julian didn't have to *smell* it. Kira did. "You know what's going to happen if we *don't*," Odo soothed, still daubing, working as he always did from her toes up, "You saw what happened to that boy's first mark."
Kira winced at the memory. "It stings," she complained, twitching slightly under Odo's ministrations.
"Only the two-day-old ones do that," Odo noted, blowing gently on the leision he was treating. "How's that?"
Her only answer was a sigh of relief.
Odo chuckled under his breath and continued his treatments.
Comfort never lasted long. Somewhere on her body, a mark would start to feel as if mites were crawling through it, then it would prickle, then *itch* with a fury that couldn't be answered. This was one of the reasons Bashir had also insisted on making her wear frictionless mittens, lest she break a sore early and suffer the consequences. Kira had one of those moments, right on the impossible-to-reach spot between her shoulderblades. She shifted awkwardly, trying to make friction work for her.
Odo noticed immediately, pausing in his ministrations to seek out her annoyance. Instead of scratching for her, he pressed the sore with just enough pressure to produce a biting sting.
"Ow!"
"It stopped the itch, didn't it?" Odo returned to his artwork on her thighs, painting on the mixture and blowing it dry.
Kira produced a complaining note in the back of her throat. "Now it's *burning*..."
"I keep telling you," he informed with affectionate disregard, "to decide on the lesser of two evils, and put up with whichever one you dislike the least. I promise I'll do what I can about the other one."
"I can't stand *either* symptom, Odo," she whinged. "I hate itching, and I *loathe* burning..." Kira wrinkled her nose at the stench, "and I *hate* that flakking *Smell*!" He delicately flipped aside the shirt that stood between her and indecency to work up her torso, "Then just relax; you'll heal quicker." "It's not the healing I'm worried about," Kira murmured, now thoroughly self conscious of her purple leisions as Odo dabbed at them. "I feel - I don't know; ugly." "You're never ugly, Nerys." "Hah." Kira snorted. "Then why is it that you don't react to me anymore? Why have I gone from being you flakkin' *idol* to - to; some *thing* that has to be maintained?" He stopped, crushing the cloth in his hand until it dripped viscous yellow liquid, "Because," he finally managed in a choked voice, "If I don't keep distant... I'll go mad."
"Odo?" His veneer was cracking. She could see it in the way he held himself, the way he turned his face away and tried to hide from the Universe at large. He'd held himself like that the first time he'd truly admitted his feelings for her, like it was a hideous secret that had been harming him for a long time. Something else was doing the same, now. "Every time you're hurt, I - I want to go out and destroy whoever harmed you, I *need* to make it alright. Now. And I *can't* because you're sick, and all I can do is soak you in this - stuff; and pray it works." He was panting, now, his eyes open to her and torn with grief, "Every night, after you've taken that shot to help you sleep, I go down to the middle of the Dead Zones and howl until I'm too exhausted to do anything. All because you're hurting and I can do *nothing*." She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him as he shook himself to a halt. "There," she whispered, "Shh-shh. It's alright, dearling, it's alright. You *are* doing something, Odo."
"Mm?"
"You're helping me," Kira smiled, despite the fact that her eyes were leaking, "There's no way under the Prophet's guidance that I'd voluntarily put this stuff on, *myself*, is there?"
Odo huffed a laugh, "It is rather abhorrent. For what it's worth, I hate it too."
"But - *why*? You don't have a sense of smell..."
"It clogs my skin membranes," he explained, "And as a direct result, I end up feeling nothing with the effected hand, and - dizzy; for half an hour."
"No wonder you were always so careful," Kira hugged him again, just for the sake of holding him, "But from now on, we suffer together, got that? If something's bothering you, just - get it off your chest."
Odo leaned into her embrace with a sigh, "I was *mortified* when you
called me 'Comfortable' in front of half the Ops staff - and Quark."
"There," grinned Bashir, folding away his tricorder, "Clean bill of health for you, Major."
"*Fi*nally," Kira rejoiced, "no more itching, burning, exhaustion, horrible medicines or *bad* *Smells*!
"Uuurrgghh..." Odo leaned heavily on one of Bashir's consoles.
"Ale'al?"
"Constable? Are you alright?" The tricorder was out again in an instant.
Odo tried to wave him away, even as he sank to sit on the floor, "No, it's just the side-effects of that damn medicine you had me give Nerys. It'll go away in a few minutes. It always does."
"Odo," said Bashir, helping him up, "that concoction of mine was nearly a polymer. There's no way it could possibly penetrate *your* skin unless you deliberately chose to absorb it."
"...oh flakk..." he managed, accepting Kira's help to get him to the biobed before he sank down again.
Bashir fooled with the settings so he could actually make sense of the Changeling's biorythms. "I'm afraid that you've caught a mutation of the Chicken Pox, Constable," he announced, "Looks like the virus adapted to attack the Bajoran physiognomy - hardly surprising, since Bajorans and Humans are genetically similar; then somehow, it latched onto something in your Changeling makeup."
Odo groaned.
"Look on the bright side," consoled Bashir, "Now Major Kira can nurse you back to health." He grinned happily as Odo hurumphed and Nerys smothered a smile. "Anyway, you can be glad it's a disease I've recently gotten rather a lot of experience in treating."
"Does it mean that you can come up with something approaching *medicine* for me?"
"Unfortunately, no," Bashir fiddled with some more buttons, "the best I could do is symptomatic treatment based on which chemicals you react to - and in which manner. Other than that, we're just going to have to take it as it comes."
Odo heaved a pained sigh, asking the universe at large, "Is there anything *else*?"
Then Kira Nerys started to sneeze. And sneeze...