Disclaimer: I don't own Deep Space Nine or Voyager, Paramount does. But, this is my idea.
Author's Note: I've had this idea for a long time, I thought Jadzia Dax was one of the best Star Trek characters and her death upset me (the creators did a great job, but I was not too happy with her death). It was a dormant idea for a couple years, but once I heard The Fray's song "How To Save A Life", this song reignited the idea and here it is.
Summary: (DS9 & VOY Crossover, AU) When first hearing of Jadzia Dax's death, Tom Paris was on Voyager, but with the help of an unlikely source, he might be able to save his friend's life.
Rating: T (PG-13)
Timeline: Deep Space Nine: During the episode "Tears of the Prophets". Voyager: After the episode "Unforgettable" (season 4).
How To Save A Life
Voyager
Lieutenant Thomas Eugene Paris was in his quarters looking over some Helm reports. Tom was sitting at his desk and had his computer on so he could sporadically look to see if his girlfriend Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres had sent him a message. His eyes were beginning to strain and Tom was almost ready to call it a night. But then something happened; a video came up on Tom's computer.
The video shown was of his old friend, Jadzia Dax. She was pen pals with his older sister Moria and had visited their house on several occasions. Over time Tom Paris and Jadzia had become close friends. But this video was not of the old happy times of their youth.
Jadzia was saying something in a Bajoran shrine about a baby. Tom smiled after hearing some of the things Jadzia was saying about a baby, she might be pregnant! If Tom remembered correctly, she was on Deep Space Nine when they left and was probably still there. Suddenly in the video, the candles blew out and the lights darkened, Tom's smile disappeared knowing something was up. Behind Jadzia appeared Gul Dukat, his eyes were red and Jadzia responded to his presence by reaching for her phaser. But Dukat stopped her by shooting a beam out at her.
"NOOO!" Tom yelled at the screen. He knew that this probably wasn't real, but seeing a good friend die was never a happy experience.
Dukat's beam continued to hit Jadzia in the chest raising her above the floor. Soon it stopped and Jadzia fell lifelessly down to the ground. Tom was in shock and didn't pay attention to what happened next. Tom just stared at the screen and saw Dukat say something to Jadzia which outraged Tom. How could someone so evil not have been dead, yet?
Later on in the video, Jadzia was shown with her husband, Worf. She was almost dead and was saying how their baby would have looked beautiful. When she died, Tom felt anger and sadness, he was holding back tears. The video on his screen ended and the computer went blank again.
Tom's anger began to boil over. He stood up and grabbed the chair he was sitting in and threw it across the room. The chair hit a vase and that broke easily. Tom continued the destruction of his quarters throwing Padds and clothes on the floor. He soon was able to over turn the couch in his fit of anger.
"I didn't think you would get this upset, Tom." A voice said to Tom. That voice was easily recognized by Tom. Soon the voice appeared in its full 'human' form.
"Q!" Tom spat his name in anger. "You did this!"
"No, I just showed you what happened an hour ago." Q replied. "Dukat was the one that killed her."
"Why?" Tom asked. "Why did you show me this? What's wrong with you?"
"I just thought you might like the opportunity I'm going to give you." Q answered. "I want to offer you the chance of saving her life."
"What?" Tom asked. He couldn't believe it. Q was actually offering him a chance to save Jadzia's life and it was a nice thing to do.
"I'll take you to Deep Space Nine; I'll let you try as many times to save her life as you want." Q responded. "So, will you take me up on this offer?"
Tom didn't even have to think about it. "Of course." Tom replied.
"Good. Now, let's go save a life." Q said. Q snapped his fingers.
Deep Space Nine
Q and Tom appeared on Deep Space Nine's promenade. They walked to the Bajoran shrine and stood at the entrance. Tom didn't go in for a couple seconds not knowing if it was safe.
"I want to see it happen again." Tom said to Q. "If I'm going to save her, I'm going to need to know exactly what happened."
Q nodded and snapped his fingers again. They appeared in the shrine a few seconds before Dukat appeared. They were obviously invisible since Jadzia did not react to their sudden appearance.
"She isn't going to die, not on my watch." Tom muttered to himself. "Not while I'm here."
Author's Note: I know this is short, but I've already missed nearly an hour of the Super Bowl and it's a special one. I hope you enjoyed this little tidbit of the story. Thanks for reading so far.