What Brings You Back
By Laura Schiller
Based on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Copyright: Paramount
In the white space, she came to him, cupping his cheek with her hand and looking up at him with a bittersweet sadness on her face.
It is time, Benjamin.
For what, Mother? he asked.
The Sisko's task continues. You have learned much from us. Now you must return to Deep Space Nine.
The name of his station, Captain Sisko's station, was like a dash of cold water in his face, waking him up as if from a long dream. He did not feel the passing of time in the Celestial Temple. It was like floating through a long, sweet dream, watching the universe outside like insects crawling on the ground. It had been easy to forget he was connected to them, that he was a Human Starfleet officer with duties besides those of the Prophets.
But the entity who had been Sarah Sisko was right, as always. It was time to go back to his other home.
I will take you back, she told him. But first, find the Changeling.
Which one?
The one you call Odo. You will need him.
With a final long hug, and the gift of love like warm breath washing over him, she faded out of Ben's sight and left him standing on the shores of the Great Link.
He had forgotten how stunning the place was. Pink, red and golden clouds shone over a rippling expanse of golden liquid: a collective of hundreds, or even thousands, of Changelings. Ben scuffed his shoes on the crunchy sand and felt the cool air on his face. Sarah hadn't forgotten his Starfleet uniform, and the Human part of him was grateful.
"Odo?" he called.
There was no answer.
"I know you're in there somewhere," Ben rasped, unused to the exercise of his vocal chords. "This is Captain Benjamin Sisko. I need to talk to you. Please. I need you … the Prophets need you … to come back to Deep Space Nine with me."
He cleared his throat and stood at parade rest. "I know you feel it's your duty to stay with your own kind," he continued. "To convince them to make peace with Solids. Well, you've shared the cure with them, and your memories, haven't you? You showed them how Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien put their lives on the line to save you, even at the risk of strengthening the Federation's enemies – no offense, er … people. You showed them how the Federation showed mercy to the Founder. You showed them your life on Deep Space Nine, the kindness, courage and honor you observed there … the friendships you made. Isn't that enough?"
He could have tapped into their collective consciousness, found Odo and related all this mind-to-mind. But since the whole point of his speech was to recall Odo to humanoid ways, it was a humanoid speech that had to be made.
"If you won't come back for me, or for the Prophets," said Ben, "Come back for Nerys. She misses you, I've seen it. That spark of hers left the station the moment you did, and only you can bring it back.
"Come back, Odo. For all of us."
A faint tap on the shoulder startled him. He turned around.
Odo, in full humanoid shape, wearing a perfect copy of Ben's uniform, stood there with a painful longing in his eyes.
"Are you sure it's not too late, Captain?" he asked.
Ben clapped his old comrade soundly on the shoulder, beaming. "Never."
=/\=
Colonel Kira Nerys sipped absently at her raktajino, warming her hands on it as she stared out the window of her quarters. It had been a long day, with stacks of cargo manifests to check over, faulty computer systems, a frazzled Chief Engineer who could never fill Miles' shoes, and the bundle of hormones that was a pregnant Mrs. Sisko. If she had to hear "I'm sorry, Colonel" one more time, she was going to lock herself in her quarters.
She sighed and looked at the holoimages on her desk. They were all of people she cared about; a depressing number of them were either dead or had left her. Her mother and father; Bareil in his orange robes beneath a tree; Shakaar, making a solemn First Minister's face; the O'Brien family at the sunlit harbor in Hong Kong, where they lived now; Ben Sisko with a twinkle in his eye that belied his stiff gray-and-black uniform.
The newest picture showed Ezri and Julian, the last remnants of the old senior crew, holding a white wedding bouquet between them and grinning from ear to ear. Right next to them stood the one image that drew her eyes the most; some days she felt like hurling it into the recycler, some days she could stare at it for hours.
It was Odo and Nerys, looking unbelievably happy. He in a tuxedo, she in a red cocktail dress, dancing cheek to cheek. Vic Fontaine had 'snapped' that picture on their first date, the one he had tricked them into. Bless his meddling holographic heart.
Nerys looked and looked at the picture, but she did not cry. She had not been able to cry for all of the five months Odo had been gone.
She had kept the bucket. Of all things, a big steel bucket had to be the most unromantic lover's token she'd ever had. It was always empty; no shimmering golden Changeling would ever regenerate there again. Still she kept it by her bed.
"Mind if I join you? Pretty girl like you shouldn't be drinking alone."
For a moment, she thought it was her own memories speaking. Those were almost the first words Odo had spoken to her, back when he'd been on his first murder case and she was his suspect, long before their friendship and their love. She put down her cup, turned her chair away from the picture – and saw Odo.
Her first instinct was to slap her commbadge and call security, but he flashed over in a streak of golden light and caught her wrist.
"Nerys," he rumbled, his blue eyes piercing into hers. "Stop, it's me!"
Nobody called her Nerys anymore.
She looked up into his rough features, the face she had traced so often with her hands and lips. The face she still saw when she closed her eyes at night, the voice she heard whispering her name, just like that. Nerys. The touch of his hand. She knew him in her bones; it couldn't be anyone else.
For a few seconds, she just stared.
"Odo … ?" she whispered, afraid to break the silence in case it wasn't real.
"Yes. I've come back, Nerys … I've come back."
He let go of her hand and stepped back.
That was a tactical error.
Without Odo, Nerys had not been herself for five months. She had been unable to shout, swear, laugh or cry as she had before; in engineering terms, she had been running on half impulse. Now that he was there, alive and tangible, her warp drive came blazing back to life.
She stood up and punched him square in the nose. He reeled back.
"That was for leaving me!" she snarled. "Do you think you can just waltz in here and expect me to take you back? Like I was waiting by the viewport for the past five months, mooning over you like a lovesick teenager? Is that it?"
"No, I do not," he said, fixing her with a laser-scalpel glare. "I do not expect anything. Captain Sisko deposited me here, by order of the Prophets; blame him for my being here. I apologize, Colonel, if my presence is unwelcome." He turned to leave, his back stiff as a tritanium rod in that sand-colored Bajoran uniform.
"Oh, you're as dense as you ever were!" She grabbed his shoulder and whirled him around. "You, Constable, are not going anywhere." And she sealed that order with a kiss.
It was a hungry kiss, a wild kiss, a clash of five months' pent-up passion. It was like their first kiss on the Promenade all over again. When it was over, she wrapped her arms around his neck and and looked up at him, drinking in the sight like a woman dying of thirst.
"When I shared my memories with my people," said Odo, smiling ruefully, "The entire Great Link began to miss you. They were begging me to go back after a week."
"Then why didn't you?" she murmured into his ear.
"There aren't too many shuttles on their homeworld. Besides … I was afraid my place would be taken here."
"You're irreplaceable, Odo," she said, with another kiss.
"So are you."
He stroked her hair, still dyed black and brushed away from her right ear to show her earring. She was glad she hadn't changed it, that she still looked like the Nerys he remembered.
"You are my home, Nerys," he said, his voice touching her like warm sand on the beach.
"And you're mine," she said, fiercely blinking away her tears. "I love you, Odo."
=/\=
In another corner of the ship, Ben Sisko smiled down at the sleeping form of Kasidy, her rounded belly showing through the blankets. Her black hair was scattered across the pillow like warm silk. She was even lovelier than he remembered.
"Kasidy … " he whispered, touching her ever so gently on the shoulder. "Wake up."
"Ben?" Still half asleep, she took hold of his hand; finding that it was warm and solid, and in fact very real, she gasped and sat up as quickly as her pregnant body could manage.
"Computer, lights!" she ordered.
He smiled at her, her intense black eyes scanning him up and down, taking in every detail of her husband's familiar appearance.
"Didn't I promise you I'd be back?" he said?"
Kasidy ducked her head, wiped her eyes, and let out a shaky little laugh.
"Yes … you said 'maybe a year, or maybe yesterday' … I should've known it would be neither."
He sat down on the bed and, very slowly, took both her hands in his. She didn't pull away.
"Can you forgive me, Kasidy?" he asked quietly. "For leaving you?"
"Ben," she said. "When I married you, I promised to stand by you for better or for worse. You're the Emissary. I accept that. You follow your course, and I'll follow mine. We'll always meet eventually."
Ben took a moment to send his heartfelt gratitude to the Prophets, for sending him back to this incredible woman. She was a diamond, he thought. How did he ever deserve her?
"Well, for the next foreseeable period," he told her, "You and I will be charting one course together. And I'll do my very best to ensure it stays that way."
She threw her arms around him and they hugged, neither speaking, for a long time. Ben's hand traveled slowly downward, stroking the bump that was their child through Kasidy's silky nightgown. He was greeted with a hearty kick from the baby, and they both laughed.
"I think your son wants to say hello," said Kasidy.
"My son?"
A boy! A little brother for Jake! A tiny, perfect blend of Ben and Kasidy, to love and to hold. It was his turn to shed a tear.
He thought of an old human saying, Home is where the heart is. This was definitely home.