Unknown to the outside world--to the universe: a horrible crime had been witnessed by the walls of Major Kira Nerys’ quarters. They heard what the outside did not: the last attempts of the Bajoran ex-Resistance fighter to free herself from the grasps of a shape shifting trio--her kidnappers.





"It isn’t like Kira to miss one of our weekly meetings", Odo mused aloud to Dax as she stepped in line beside him on her way to Ops.

"Well, she did when she was with Shakkur. . .", Jadzia observed.

Uh-oh! Instantly, Jadzia wished she could have snatched back the words from the air before they reached him.


Too late. Even though Odo was usually quite coordinated at masking his feelings when the words registered on his ears his frail blue eyes sought refuge from the memories resurrected before him.

Jadzia cursed herself. "I’m so sorry, Odo."

He managed a surprisingly convincing nod in Jadzia’s direction, but hidden from sight the agony remained ablaze. Not too far to go now, he coaxed himself, certain that once he drowned himself in his work that all would disappear into oblivion, but the only thing that actually disappeared into oblivion was a guilty Dax, as she scurried in the bustle of Ops hoping to forgo any more tactlessness on her part.

Noon, and nothing. Odo nearly finished with his work, found he couldn’t stave off the nagging worry as easily when there was less to do, he tapped his combadge. "Odo, to Dax."

"Dax here."

"Have you seen Kira. . .Is she there?"

"No, I haven’t", groping for something to verbally assure her friend she struggled, "Maybe she took some leave privately. Ask Sisko."

"Maybe, Odo out." But, he dropped her suggestion deciding to investigate on his own first. After all what was an investigator for? he thought to himself.

He strolled down the Promenade to the Habitat Ring to Kira’s quarters.

He buzzed the doorcom. No answer. He tried once more to no avail, and before he could stop his impulse he punched the security entry code and opened the door. Peeking in, he barely whispered "Kira?", still no response. Warily he entered and saw no sight of her. The room was in--what he expected was the normal minor mayhem of her mornings. But it was still wrong, what had stopped her from coming, her combadge lay on the foot of the bed, untouched since it had been placed there. And she was no where to be found.

On the last limb of hope, he went to the nearest console, and searched for Nerys. She wasn’t on board and the computer failed to furnish a record of her ever leaving. Could she--have vanished?

He forced the thought from his mind and his detective skills took over: time being the ultimate bane of most evidence in any scene he melted into his liquid state to do a through search of her apartment. He started over the carpeted floor, absorbing all the textures and objects unseen by the human eye. He surveyed her room top to bottom, Nothing out of place, then as he crossed back over the floor he bumped into something, or rather it glided into him. Oddly enough the article was vaguely familiar, and it became defined as he backed away into solid form. A drop of a Changling fluid! He gently took it in his hand letting it slide back and forth over his palm. But he had felt of Changelings before, this was different it seemed to be unconsciously a part of him in a way he couldn’t define.

In a somewhat selfish remorse he took one last look over the room as he turned to the door, How different the room looked personally, then it had on a visualcom display. "My first look at your room will most likely be my last--" , he stated to the air before shaking himself grabbing Kira’s combadge from the bed and heading straight to Doctor Bashir’s.

Walking to the infirmary he found himself cradling the tiny drop as if it where the last drop of life left in his universe--and in ways not yet known to him it was...

"Odo!", Bashir welcomed him, "Is there anything I can do for you--Everything well?", he added with a bit a teasing grin, expecting that Odo had come for other reasons.

"Can you examine this?", Odo held out the drop in the palm of his hand.

"Some of your. . .substance?"

"No, I found it in Kira’s quarters", he tired not to sound distressed, but the words did as they pleased.

"Still no sign of her?"

He muttered to himself, Word travels too fast on this station--he faltered internally--especially at times when you wish it wouldn’t. "No, I fear something has happened."

"And that’s why you want me to look at this substance."

"To confirm my suspicions."

"Understood. I’ll do my best--", Bashir paused, "but what exactly are we looking for?"

"I feel there is more there than silicon based particles", he ran his index finger over the drop of brownish-orange liquid, "if anything turns up that’s--out of place tell me."

"I will. I’m just afraid that breaking through the web of silicon particles may prove a ghastly task."

Odo left despondent, and Dax who had fortunately slipped past Odo without so much as being noticed, grinned, "My! Didn’t he turn into a worrisome old man in half a day?"

"He’s even got me worried! He hasn’t been able to calm down all morning", Bashir toyed with the tiny drop in front of him, Odo was never this restless for so long.

"What’s this?", she stepped up to examine the tiny ball Julian had placed on his medical tray.

"Evidence."

"Found anything yet?"

"No--It could take me all afternoon, I’m afraid."

"In that case, I think I’d better go keep my eye on Odo."

"Do that." Julian waved her off as cheerfully as he could before sitting back down in front of the grueling task at hand.





Odo held together as best he could and might have fallen apart if Julian hadn’t called just in time.

"Bashir to Odo."

"Odo here."

"I think you were right, you’ll have to come see this for yourself."

"On my way."

Odo arrived at the Doctor’s in record time. "What did you find?"

"Well, I wasn’t sure at the time, but I think I’ve made a positive match...", Bashir tapped a few buttons of the console, and what looked like to Odo: two twisted ladders popped up on the display.

"If I’m not mistaken Doctor, isn’t that--DNA?"

"Yes, and to be more precise Kira’s DNA."

Odo looked startled. "In the changeling fluid, why?"

"You know more about changelings than I do... Could she have been resisting a changeling and did enough damage to--ah--wound a changeling?"

"There’s a good chance that she did enough damage that it was lost in transportation." That’s not all that happened though, Odo declared to himself, they had to have absorbed her for her DNA to be inside their fluid. More than that what really scared him was: What if he couldn’t reverse their acts? He had heard of changelings being dispersed within the Lake and not being able to take a form again. What was going to happen to Kira?

But, not willing to provoke any alarm amongst the others he kept the disturbing thought to himself, and calmly walked over closer to Julian, "May I take this now?"

Julian nodded a bit distracted as he began to figure out what kind of trouble the Major might really be in--he didn't even notice the Constable leave.





The buzz of the doorcom broke Sisko’s concentration on the data PADDs before him. "I’m overdue a break any way", he told himself before he raised his voice a few notches higher, "Come in."

Odo entered, "I’m sorry to bother you Captain, but I think I’m on to something", the door closed behind him, "I think the Founders have taken Kira."

"What do you have so far?"

Odo delayed his answer. "Not much at the moment--that’s why I came here first, I’d like your permission to be relieved of duty, the more time I can devote to finding Kira, the more likely I’ll be able succeed."

"Right."

Odo started for the door, and Sisko stopped him, "Odo."

Odo looked back, "Yes, sir?"

"Good luck."

Odo nodded. Whether or not he believed in ‘luck’ didn’t quite matter at this point in time--because he knew he may need it before long.

First he’d need to get things straight before handing his work over to his deputies..





Finally pleased after hours of going over things Odo found he was exhausted and had to regenerate.

"Not now!" He growled at himself as his hand went liquid when he picked up the changeling fluid off the desk he had sat it on. Then he felt a strange sensation of an isolated matter--reacting he let the foreign matter drop out, it was a drop of blood. Horror and awe struck him at the same time. Bashir had talked of DNA, but not of cells or blood, maybe where advanced technology could not separate the two he could. If the drop came out whole, maybe Kira could too! He had to leave for the Founders now. There was a chance he could rescue Kira even if they had dispersed her.





To Odo it felt like the runabout was going at a crawl, but he knew it was at full warp. "It will be hours till I reach you...", he whispered the sentiment just as if she could hear him before checking the auto pilot one last time before finally giving into his desire to regenerate for part of the time it would take to reach his home world.





Back on the station Julian had the Senior staff meet, with the exception of the missing Major and Constable. He was already in the process of explaining the situation.

"It sounds like to me that we’re in a dead end situation," ‘Dead' was the word Sisko wished he hadn’t said, but that’s what it was.

"We have to prepare for the worst--", Julian added.

Looking for a loop hole--any loop hole--Jadzia jumped in, "What if they absorbed her whole? Wouldn’t that change things?"

"Yes, but...", Bashir sighed, "I just don’t see any data to support any theory except disbursement...hypothetically--pieces."

Despite all the discouraging evidence in the world the room was still full of optimists. O’Brien looked up, "He can put the pieces of the hardest case together better than anyone we know of.."

Worf started to intrude, but the Dax once Curzon stared him down before she continued where O’Brien left off, "And he knows Kira better than she knows herself--better than anyone knows her, including the Founders."

Bashir chided, "Jadzia."

Julian got no further before Jadzia bit his head off, "We may have to prepare for the worst, but we can also hope for the best, we owe them that much..."

The meeting ending with the expected discord, this being one of the few outcomes none of them wanted to bet on, even Quark, Odo’s long time inconvenience didn’t persevere as hard as normal for bets.





Back on the runabout Odo reformed his humanoid form an hour shy of the ship’s entrance into the Gamma Quadrant. With no Dominion ships around he made a straight shot to his home planet, setting the ship in orbit around the planet, and set up a force field in the interior of the ship, that only he could deactivate with Nerys’ combadge, which he left hidden in the framework of one of the consoles.

He materialized on the planet’s surface 30 yards from the lake and continued on foot to the Lake. Three Changelings were there to greet him. . .

"Where is she?", he addressed the question to the closest changeling, but one of the shape shifters behind the first answered, "Safe."

"What is it you will have me do?", rage surmounting his already irritated sand-papery voice.

"Stay. You are home."

"What about the Major?"

"She is amongst us. Come", the first changeling bid Odo to follow them into the Lake. Just like in the drop of changeling fluid, he could feel Kira all around him in the Lake, except amplified by the link with the other changelings the sensations were remarkably tantalizing if not tempting, but he chastised himself, She doesn’t belong here--he could feel that too...

The three changelings withdrew from the Lake and despite the lure of the intense pleasure...Odo did the same.

Smiles molded into shape on the faces of the changelings, "You see."
Odo unsuccessfully recoiled, "I do, in all the years I’ve loved her...I’ve never felt so--close to her..."

The nearby changeling nodded, "A closeness that we hope will keep you here, so you can be close to her--and to us."

Odo nodded.

Then the changeling warned him, "A closeness that you will never have otherwise..."

So best I behave myself, right? Odo didn’t need to ask the question. And once more they reentered the Lake. As much as he wanted to be he wasn’t content... They had it all planned, if he stayed: he’d have a virtually impossible closeness to Kira, if he left he’d lose not only the link with the changelings, but with Kira as well. He battled within himself and despite the pain of the latter, Odo concluded he’d rather Kira be happy then to have all these pleasures--even if they were more than he have ever dared to imagine.





But as for Kira she was in utter pain, because being in the Lake was like being in a watery grave, she could hear the changelings--she heard Odo, but she could not move she could only think and badger herself: Now you have all the time in the world to suffer, you caused him pain, you deserve it. Deserve to regret each moment you didn’t notice, each time you didn’t see it in his eyes--eyes filled with so much pain that they were glazed in ice that can’t be chipped away--that couldn’t be melted... She buried herself back in wishes to die, while unknown to her, her escape was nearing with each passing second.





Odo waited hours until he started to put his plan into action, hours filled with a cocktail of turmoil and ecstasy--hours that passed too quickly, and hours that he’d vow to later force himself to forget just as quickly. Then without the knowledge of the changelings, he absorbed Kira into his substance and slipped quickly out of the lake with her inside of him. Outside the Lake he activated his combadge and transported himself into the runabout.





They had escaped.

Odo released Kira slowly from his liquid form, and resumed his ‘solid’ appearance so he could catch her limp body in his arms. Still holding her close to him, he shifted his body so he could navigate the runabout out of orbit, and set course for the station.

Then every so gently he put one arm under her legs and the other under her neck and shoulders lifting her with elaborate ease and carried her to the back of the runabout lying her the bottom bunk. Slowly stirring from two days of being completely immobile she opened her eyes, "Odo?!?", eagerly she reached out and hugged him, tears glistened on her ends of her coal black lashes, and sobs erupted inside of her as she doubled over into his arms.

He wrapped his arms around her trying console her, "Ssh, It’s all right now..."

Finally, convinced that she wasn’t dreaming it all--that they were going home--that she was going home she up righted herself so she could face him, "Years and years in the Resistance, I had always promised myself I’d never think of suicide--that if I died I wanted to take a Cardassian with me, or die trying. In the lake, not being able to move--to fight, I wished--I wanted to die..."

"I’m glad you didn’t," he dearly wanted to wipe the tears away, but afraid it was too rash of a move he hoped he could ease her pain with a light-hearted promise, "Well, your secret is safe with me...", he smiled the faintest smile. Kira faced him again, almost smiling and then a heavy realization emerged, "Odo?"

"Yes?"

Nothing could have prepared Odo for the next words. Nothing.

"--how long have you been keeping your secret from me?"

"Wha--"

"How long?", she demanded--demanded the last inch of his soul.

"Too long" , and ‘too late’ he feared.

"I wish you had told me before."

"I saw no need to, I never saw signs that you felt the same way..."

Determined to say what she felt she was at a loss, "I don’t know how I feel!"

She tapered the edge off her voice, "but, that’s a problem I’ll have to figure out for myself."

Ready to distance himself from her if need be he spoke with all the calmness he could muster, "What do you want me to do?"

Seeing him withdraw his hands from beside her she grabbed them in her own two hands, "Odo! Don’t leave me, not now! I’m--", she bit her lower lip, "--still shook up, and I feel safer with you close to me, I think I can sleep, it seems like years since I’ve slept..."

He silently obliged holding her in his arms as she laid her head on his shoulder and slept. Odo relaxed, after the links in the lake, this was still small in comparison, but now he wasn’t guilty. He was scared it would end just as the other links had, but for now he wasn’t guilty of prolonging Kira’s imprisonment--making these moments were what he imagined ‘heaven’ was to the people he had read about in Terran books.

He shifted his body to comfort Nerys the best he could, and reveled in each moment that passed. It was after some time that Odo realized that something was awry--he still had the drop of blood inside of him. Subconsciously his body had made the adjustments needed to keep the drop in perfect condition and when he let the drop fall out of the finger tip of one hand into the palm of the other he savored it’s feel against his skin. Even if she will never love me, or even if I’ll never connect with her like that again I’ll still have this, then he admonished the thought, It’s hers, not mine, when she wakes I’ll tell her how I came to have it, there will be no use in holding on to it if I can’t hold on to her... Just as the thought ended he heard a gasp. "Odo that’s not your blood is it!?!", she corrected herself, "No...no, you don’t bleed..."

"No, you’re right, I find it in your room in a drop of fluid left by one of the changelings", he demonstrated, letting his index finger go liquid and took in the drop of blood then forcing it again onto his palm. "I guess, it became a part of me, as much as I wished you could become a part of me," he astonished himself as he forced out those last words. Then he stiffened himself, "I thought you might want it back..."

"No, if you want it. It’s yours," she closed the fingers of his hand over it, and watched in child-like delight as his hand went liquid to receive the gift.

Odo sighed, "I just feel guilty that I took advantage of you like that though", he felt he should confess.

"It’s just a drop of blood, Odo!", Kira shot back.

"No, in the lake. I wanted to stay there forever, to be able to feel you with me--to be able to feel them..."

Kira squeezed the hand that had taken the gift "You gave up more than I did, you gave up your life. I only gave up a drop of blood--that’s not enough Odo, you are worth more than my blood, sometimes I think you are worth more than me!", tears streamed down her face.

Odo raised his hand delicatedly to her cheek the back of his hand wiping away the tears, "But not worth something that will never be", he took his hand away and turned his head so he wouldn’t have to look at her face.

"Odo don’t judge me like that! I closed my eyes to the possibility that you loved me once, but now that I know you do, I have to give myself the chance--you, have to give me the chance! Otherwise, it ‘will never be.’", she nestled her head once again on his shoulder and drew him to her, and he laid his chin on top of her angel soft hair.

"I just don’t want to destroy what we have, I don’t think I could bear not having you as a friend," he wrapped his arms around her.

"We won’t. Even if I don’t fall in love with you, I still love you."

"I love you too, Nerys."

Hours passed and neither moved from each other’s side. Then the soft buzz of the com startled Odo from his gloriously real reverie.

He guided Kira’s sleeping body to lay down on the bed grateful that she was so exhausted that her military training failed her.

Then only after quietly moving to the front part of the runabout and sitting in one if pilots seats did he open the communication channel.

The visualcom flashed and Dax appeared, "Finally! At first I thought was trouble."

"No, everything went well."

In the back Kira’s instincts had kicked in, she felt around for Odo...not finding him she made her way to the front of the runabout, "Odo?"

"I’m here Major. Dax is on the comlink."
"See Julian, what did I tell you," she informed Bashir who was out of range of the comvisual, then whispered into the comlink just loud enough for him to overhear, "from the way he’s been talking if you did come back you’d be in pieces."

Bashir now could be seen ashamed and defenseless.

Odo felt he should say something, "Julian wasn’t entirely wrong, I..."

Julian took the reins, "I’ve been telling her that if Kira come back it would be nothing short of a miracle!"

"Miracle, humph," Odo retorted. ‘A miracle’, now I’ll never live that down!

Kira came up behind Odo, "I think if I had been Humpty Dumpty he still could have put me back together," she put her hands on his shoulders. Dax laughed, and Bashir and Odo mirrored each other’s quizzical look. Dax explained that on Earth where O’Brien had come from it was an ancient nursery rhyme where an egg: ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, and had great fall and all the King’s men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again.’ Bashir mumbled something in the area of what a awful thing to tell a child.

Odo never much into the hero bit felt hopelessly dismayed, and barely succeeded in forcing out a complete sentence, "Tell the Captain we are on our way, we should be there within an hour..." Dax nodded and ended the comlink.

Kira leaned over the back of the chair, wrapping her arms around him, "What is it?"

"Everything--I’m afraid this won’t last. I’m not good at this hero thing as it is."

She waited then pried, "That’s not all."

He relented, "I’ve gained so much, and yet I still feel empty," he had partially lied: the drop of blood had filled a part of him he never knew had been empty.

To Kira there was so much despair in that last word that she wanted shrink away--she didn’t, instead she turned him to face her, "You have a right to, you have felt so much pain--a good part of which is my fault."

He started to fight back, but the tears in her eyes stopped him, and she went on, "When you were in the Lake with me I thought I was going out of my mind, I felt things I had withheld from myself since the Resistance, love for one, fear for another, and remorse. I only felt anger and contempt in the war. I guess I had dug a trench and started to pull the dirt in over myself, burying myself alive just as the changelings had--except you saved me. You gave me a gift greater than I could ever give you. You freed me from my prison, you gave me passion, I felt butterflies in my stomach for the first time--something that girls didn’t have time for in the war. I have to say this now--I may not get a third chance: Odo, I love you--I don’t just love you I’m in love with you."

He cautiously kissed her tears away, and she gently turned her head so her lips meet his in a long fulfilling kiss--

His dreams were coming true, the pieces fit, or so he thought... Read the sequel (coming soon...)