Reflections
It had been awkward, standing in the Bajoran Temple face to face with the girl that was now Dax. "This is where I died." Ezri had stuttered. "I mean where Jadzia died." Kira had tried to reach out to Ezri, but the attempt had fallen flat. Ezri had rushed out of the temple leaving a confused Kira in her wake. Now sitting before the shrine of mourning she had made for her friend, Kira Nerys looked back on the encounter and wondered. Was her discomfort because they had been standing so near to the spot where Jadzia had died? Or was she uneasy because Ezri had her at a disadvantage? Thanks to Dax, Ezri knew Kira, but the colonel had no clue about this skittish ensign. Just being in the same room with Ezri was unsettling. Part of Kira resented Sisko for trying so hard to keep this "new" Dax on the station. Kira missed Jadzia terribly, but she didn't see how forcing Ezri into their lives would help ease the pain. It wasn't fair to the girl or Jadzia's friends to expect Ezri to pick up where the previous host had left off. Weren't there Trill laws that forbade this kind of thing? Shouldn't this girl be allowed to get on with her life without Jadzia's past weighing her down?
Kira couldn't even bring herself to call Ezri -- Dax. The name was too intertwined with her memories of Jadzia. It conjured images of a stunning, brilliant, self-assured woman enthusiastically in love with life. Ezri brought to mind none of these things. Instead of stunning, Ezri was cute, timid, and frail. She reminded Kira of the wide-eyed overly emotive characters in the manga books Jake Sisko had read when he was younger. Where Jadzia had put people at ease and filled a room with laughter, Ezri made those around her uneasy and somber. Kira knew she was being unfair to the new host. Ezri hadn't had the training and preparation that other Trills received before joining. The confusion of trying to assimilate so many lives and personalities must be overwhelming. No wonder Ezri was always so ill at ease. Kira sighed. Would she ever be able to see this girl as Ezri Dax or would she always be a specter of Jadzia, a shadow that could not be reconciled? She couldn't honestly say, but Kira knew she owed it to Jadzia to try.