Title: Romance of the Warrior

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Pairing: Worf/Ezri
Tags: Romance, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Trills, Klingon, Paralysis, Interracial Relationships

Summary: Ezri wasn't a Starfleet officer, or a fighter like Jadzia and some of the previous Dax hosts. Ezri was just a Joined-Trill woman, with paralysis resulting from a lower spinal column injury, and an all-consuming crush on a certain Klingon who wouldn't give her a second look. Ezri's currently working on that last one.


BETA: TheSupernova


Chapter 1: Caretaker Keiko


Ezri was probably the least qualified of all her previous hosts to be considered for the position of honorary Klingon. Which all in all, wouldn't have been a problem, if she hadn't fallen in love with Worf. It was extremely rare, if not unheard of, for a Joined-Trill to stay with the same lover over two joins.

Yet here she was, with this all-consuming crush on a Klingon who probably wouldn't give her a second look. Now that she was no longer Jadzia, at least. Hell, the few times she tried talking to Worf, he just glared at her and stared (at something, Ezri wasn't sure what, but most of the time it wasn't her). She supposed her tendency to ramble on in her conversations was not all that endearing to a stoic, emotionally-challenged Klingon like him.

She was getting frustrated, but no way was Ezri going to give up. If her memoires served her right, Worf was the epitome of stubborn.

"No luck, huh?" Keiko asked gently. Keiko was one of the few people on board who believed Ezri had a shot with Worf.

Ezri smiled sadly. "Well, he did let me sit at his table in the canteen again! Although he did end up walking away exactly three minutes and thirty-five seconds later."

"That's an improvement from last time, isn't it? He didn't just storm off now, did he?" Keiko tilted her head. After a moment, Ezri's lips curled into a tiny smile.

"Yeah, that's true," Ezri admitted.

The door to Keiko O'Brian's room chimed.

"Come in," Keiko called out. The door slid open, and the doctor, Julian Bashir, stepped through, medkit in hand.

"Time for your daily shots," he said happily.

"You are way too happy about this." Ezri pouted. "Those shots hurt, you know!"

Bashir waved her off. "You'll live, I'm sure. You know the drill. Turn around and lift up the back of your shirt, please."

Ezri glared at the doctor before turning around. Keiko scooted closer to her on the couch, holding Ezri in her arms.

"It'll be quick, just like yesterday," Keiko said, before adding, "and the day before that one, and the day before—"

Ezri let out a muffled grumble as she buried her face in Keiko's neck. Despite their teasing, the familiarity of it all make her body relax.

"Are you ready?" Bashir asked, hypospray in hand. It contained a large vial of a strange, purple, gel-like liquid.

He held it a few inches above one of the lumber vertebrae on her spine. Ezri wrapped her arms around Keiko's body in preparation and nodded shakily. She cried out immediately when the doctor injected the first dose into her spine. Bashir moved down three vertebrae before refilling the hypospray with a small vial of blue liquid.

This time he didn't tell her before he injected the liquid. The last one hurt the most, and Ezri found it better to deal with the pain if it came in quick and unexpected.

Ezri was left shivering and crying in Keiko's arms; whether or not it was Keiko's maternal instinct that made Ezri feel better, she wasn't sure. The doctor exchanged a few words with Keiko before he left, but Ezri was in too much pain to listen to what they were saying.

Keiko ran her fingers through Ezri's short hair, holding her like she would a crying child. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard Miles O'Brian's voice in the background. The voices of two small children could be heard, talking excitedly towards their mother before being shushed gently.

Eventually, the pain lacing through Ezri's spine calmed down, and her eyelids began drooping.

"…anything for dinner?" Miles asked.

"Something with pasta," Ezri mumbled out before falling asleep, wrapped in the safety of Keiko's arms.