Sisko had just settled down in his office in Ops, having stolen a few hours of sleep beforehand, when he was interrupted by a pounding on his office door.

He knew exactly who it'd be.

"Come in, Worf!" he called. The Klingon hadn't gotten over Jadzia. He had no idea how to react to or behave around Ezri. He seemed to push her away sometimes, but other times, he seemed to be more protective of her than he'd been with Jadzia. His confrontation with Bashir in the infirmary, after Ezri arrived on the station, for instance, had been straight out of the possessive Klingon playbook.

Stepping through the door, the Klingon crossed to the desk, looking down at Sisko. Most humans would have interpreted his behaviour as glaring. Sisko knew it was merely a Klingon being direct about paying attention to you.

"Sir, I understand Lieutenant Dax is in the brig." He growled. "Why?"

"Because Odo caught her in the act of shooting a Vulcan science officer, using a TR-116 with a transporter attachment." Sisko said, without pre-amble.

"Sir, she's been investigating the killings." Worf stated, his voice going slightly lower. "She isn't the killer."

"Worf, have you seen her… arguing with herself?" Sisko asked.

"Arguing with herself?" Worf repeated. "Why would she do that?

"We're concerned that another host's personality may be controlling her actions or manipulating her. She threw a shoe at Doctor Bashir earlier and shouted at him to stop bothering her."

Worf blinked. "Clearly, she is demonstrating that regardless of her behaviour, she does not wish to have a relationship with the doctor."

"He was delivering some comforts to her." Sisko stated. "He'd barely spoken two words before she threw her shoe directly at his head."

Worf didn't respond.

"Did Jadzia ever talk to you about Joran?" He asked. "Did he ever… affect her personality?"

"No, Captain." Worf rumbled. "She never discussed that peta'Q with me."

"Well, we're no further forwards, then." Sisko commented with a deep sigh. Then his combadge chimed. "Sisko, go ahead." He said, after tapping it.

"Captain… I think you're going to want to see this." Odo said, his voice heavier than usual. "I've just been searching Lt. Dax's quarters. I was looking behind the access panel for the environmental controls. Most people don't know there's a cavity to the right of them aboard Cardassian stations."

"I'm on my way." Sisko told Odo. "Lt. Worf… follow me. We may want as many witnesses as possible."

Trotting through the near-deserted corridors, Sisko and Worf needed about five minutes to arrive outside of Ezri's assigned quarters. Opening the door, they noticed that Odo was holding a tricorder, along with a large plastic bag.

The changeling gestured to an open access panel. "It's in there, Captain."

"What is, Odo?" Sisko asked, walking across, and pulling on a pair of gloves handed to him by a Bajoran security officer.

"See." Odo grated.

Reaching into the compartment, Sisko encountered a large, angular object. There was just enough room to slide it out into the room. And then he realised what he was holding, and a sinking feeling grew deep within his chest.

He was holding a TR-116 rifle, with a micro-transporter attachment and an exographic targeting array looped around the stock. There were several small black hairs visible on the inside of the band of the headpiece. It'd been inside a wall, in Dax's quarters. Unless someone had managed to transport it into a tiny void, it could only have been placed there by Dax.

"What the hell have you done, Old Man?" Sisko whispered, holding the weapon that had almost certainly been used to commit three murders. "And why on earth did you do it at all?"

Then he straightened, forcing himself to do what was now required of him.

"Constable, log this item as evidence and secure it." He instructed.

Shaking his head, he crossed back to the door, passing Worf. The Klingon looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to his head, several times. "Lt. Worf, you're off-duty until further notice." Sisko ordered, firmly.

Clearly upset, Worf saluted, turned, and stomped off. Hopefully, he was heading for the holosuite at Quark's. Even though he'd probably get a complaint about him trashing Vic's, Sisko knew that it was better than him doing something inappropriate.

God only knew that Sisko was tempted to join him. To put off what he needed to do next.

Slapping his combadge, he growled out an instruction into it. "Colonel Kira, meet me in the brig." He instructed, receiving an acknowledgement a moment later.

Stomping through the corridors, he was surprised when several Klingons melted out of his way. The elevator was empty, which gave him a moment to compose himself.

Then he was on the promenade, marching with a straight back towards the brig, and his duty. Kira was waiting for him, with a stony explanation on her face. Although she wasn't that familiar with federation law, she knew that it was about to cease to apply to one Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Ezri Dax.

For a moment, the only cell in the DS9 brig with an active forcefield appeared to be empty, containing only a mound of bedding.

Then a head popped out of the bedding. Ezri's eyes were red, and her face streaked with tears. There was an expression on her face that hit him in the pit of the stomach. Hope.

Then he started to speak, knowing exactly what it would do to the little Trill.
"Lieutenant Junior Grade Ezri Tigan Dax, under my authority as commanding officer of Station Deep Space Nine, I hereby charge you with the following offences: That at or about station time oh-three-seventeen hours, stardate 52462.2, you did murder Lieutenant Junior Grade Hector Ilario. That at or about station time twenty-five-thirty-four hours, stardate 52472.3, you did murder Lieutenant Commander Greta Vanderweg, and that at or about station time twenty-nineteen, stardate 52540.4, you did murder Petty Officer Zim Brott. You are also charged with the attempted murder of Lieutenant Chu'lak, at or about twenty-three hundred hours, stardate 52552.3, assaulting a senior officer, two counts of murdering a senior officer, the murder of an officer of the same rank, the unlawful replication of a lethal weapon and unauthorised accessing of Starfleet databases. Due to the legal situation on this station, you will be tried under Bajoran law for these offences." He hesitated, before turning to Kira and nodding.

The Bajoran took a deep breath, before pulling out a PADD and reading from it. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?"

Ezri shook her head, whether refusing to speak or denying what she'd been accused of, Sisko could not tell.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ezri was actually stunned by the list of charges. Surely Ben… Captain Sisko… couldn't actually blame her. Surely, he couldn't actually think that she killed Hector, never mind either of the other victims. She couldn't control an involuntary shake of her head.

She also knew what was going to come next.

"As of this moment, I am placing you on indefinite suspension from duty, effective immediately. Due to the severity of your crimes, you would normally be confined to quarters. However, as your quarters are a potential crime scene, and there are concerns for your mental wellbeing, I have no option but to order your confinement here. This is the only secure space that is available at present which presents no potential obstacle to the running of the station." Sisko stopped talking for a moment. "Dax… Lieutenant… I hope that this is a tremendous misunderstanding." He continued, in an entirely different tone of voice. "But we just found another TR-116 in your quarters, behind the panel for the environmental controls."

"What?" She almost shouted. "I… never replicated a TR-116. Check the replicator logs!"

"Would you care to explain how it got in there, Lieutenant?"

"I can't, Sir." Ezri responded. "I didn't put it there."

"Do you also have no knowledge of an exographic targeting display with black hairs on it, Lieutenant?"

"They're from the Vulcan, Chu'lak!" Ezri said, forcefully. "He had a TR-116 and was wearing an exographic targeting array when I shot him!"

"Your defence, Lieutenant, appears to be that, a man who was shot in the shoulder, made it to your quarters, hid a rifle and targeting array behind a panel, and returned to his own quarters, where he lay in a pool of blood, before a medical team reached him. Is that an accurate summation?"

"Yes, sir."

Sisko shook his head. "Dax, you know that's impossible. Chu'lak spent all night in the infirmary. He was only released a few hours ago. You nearly killed him."

"He had a TR-116 too!" Ezri repeated, insistently.

"Lieutenant Dax, I'm suspending this interview until you have been assessed by the Chief Medical Officer." Sisko said, firmly, before activating his combadge. "Doctor Bashir, report to the brig and bring some tea with you."

"On my way, Sir." Bashir responded. His voice sounded… dejected, for some reason.

It took him perhaps a minute and a half to arrive. Ezri spent most of that time staring at the floor, with tears rolling down her cheeks. The one interlude was when she gave Sisko such a look of pleading vulnerability that he almost opened her cell himself.

Then, finally, the doctor arrived, and she could see Sisko was all too happy to let him take over from himself and Kira. The two stepped into the security office, before the door slid shut and she was along with Bashir.

She was even more surprised by what he did when the door was closed, and they were alone. Pulling out a flask from his pocket, Julian opened the forcefield.

"I thought you might like something to drink." He said, offering the small flask to Ezri, along with a plastic mug, retaining another for himself. There was a delicious smell of tarnellian honey and Fanalian tea from the flask as he opened the top.

"You aren't worried I'll try and kill you with the mug?" she asked, teasingly, then flushed when she realised that she was being flippant. "Or throw another shoe at you?"

"Of course I am. That's why I'm giving you the chance." Bashir said, pouring a measure of the tea into her mug. "Better to get the attempted murder with a lightweight plastic mug out of the way first. That way, we can actually talk about what's going on with you."

Ezri took a sip of the tea, then several more, allowing the familiar ritual to soothe her. It wasn't long before she felt a lot more relaxed, somehow.

"He's not really here for you." Joran hissed. The previous host hadn't commented for a while, and Ezri had managed to put him to the back of her mind. "He just wants to show that inane captain of yours that he's good at being a doctor."

"Shut up!" Ezri shouted.

Bashir looked slightly shocked at the outburst.

"Let me put it this way, Julian." She said. "I'm not going mad. I've got… a sort of passenger, I guess. Not like Dax."

"Like Joran?" Julian asked. "What is it actually like having him… interacting with you?"

"It's like being followed around by an annoying co-worker with no sense of personal space. Who isn't concerned about anything other than trying to goad me into violence. I threw my shoe at him earlier. It's not good manners, even on Trill. Audrid once got into trouble for having a row with Lela over dinner with her husband. And Curzon once got thrown out of a restaurant for arguing with Audrid about the role of a field docent." She looked away, her shoulders slumping as she paused mid-flow, and just sighed. "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"A little." Julian replied. "It's useful, though."

"Like having a doctor at a gymnastics event?" Ezri asked, clearly off on a non-sequitur. "Particularly when one of the competitors has decided to challenge a judge's decision with a massive sword."

"What?" Julian asked. "Why did that happen?"

"I don't understand why Emony didn't kill that Tessman thug. She had access to his sword, after all. He tried to kill her, and nearly killed her friend." Joran commented, snidely.

"Emony was judging a gymnastics competition on Earth, back when humans didn't really get outside their solar system that regularly." Ezri explained, ignoring Joran. "One of the competitors was a Tessman. He was a very good gymnast, but there was no passion to his performance. His people and the Trill did not have good relations at that time. It's a long story why. He didn't appreciate being beaten by another Trill in the first round and got angry enough to wreck his landing in the second round. That meant he didn't qualify. Do you know where to get any escargot?"

"What?"

"Talking about this memory is making me want something called escargot." Ezri said, barely pausing for breath. "His room-mate was a human. He was cute. Emony approached him, and he was smart enough to know she wanted him to ask her out. And he wasn't much of a bigot."

"Are you talking about Leonard McCoy?" Julian asked.

"Yes. He took Emony to a really nice restaurant. She really enjoyed the food, and the real wine. Not synthehol. Stuff that was made with a stone press, real fruit and love." Ezri blushed slightly. "They took a bit of a detour on the way back to his apartment."

"Oh. That kind of detour." Julian said, understanding the context clue perfectly. "How did it go?"

"Emony had no complaints at all. They talked about the tessman issue with her. I told him about the fact that they started a row when they fell into the symbiont caves on Trill while hiking. After that, they decided we were 'vermin lovers'." Ezri practically spat the last phrase. "And then she told him she was joined. He didn't… react badly, for an earth-raised human, when he found out she'd been a man before she was a woman."

"That was Tobin, wasn't it?" Julian asked. "Didn't he win the Star Cross?"

Ezri actually giggled. "None of the other hosts have ever understood why they decorated him for blowing up most of a cruiser."

"He blew up a cruiser?" Julian asked. "Why? And how?"

"This was back before Romulans had warp drives. He was aboard a ship carrying a prototype transporter, one of the first of the modern ones. The Romulans managed to knock it out of warp and boarded it, to steal the warp drive. Tobin and a Vulcan friend of his managed to transport a lab table into the coolant tank and block the feed to the warp core. They then got the crew out, blew the ship in half with powerpacks, and got clear."

"Like a saucer separation?" Julian asked.

"His Vulcan friend was the one who came up with that idea, afterwards." Ezri said."

"Why are you telling him these things?" Joran demanded. "He doesn't need to know them. He's let you out of the cell. His guard is down. His hands are full. Throw your tea in his face and run."

Ezri sighed and shook her head. "No." she stated. "Not going to happen."

Bashir looked slightly confused.

"Joran was suggesting that I take advantage of you."

"I see." Bashir re-joined. "You know, there are more than a few circumstances where I might be very willing to go along with that idea…"

For a moment, Ezri actually froze. This wasn't the sort of half-hopeful pass Ilario had made while drunk. Unless she was reading far too much into it. Or not. Damn it, Jadzia, why couldn't you have just slept with him? Ezri thought and ended up having to stifle a giggle. Part of her mind threw up the sort of image that was about as unhelpful as it could be. For an instant, she imagined leaning forwards… She shook her head, banishing the thought as far as she could.

"He suggested throwing my tea in your face and running." Ezri admitted, once she'd gotten her composure back.

"You'd have gotten into the security office." Julian said, with a sly grin. "Then you'd have needed to get past Colonel Kira. With a phaser."

Even though she was already embarrassed, Ezri couldn't help looking away for a second, feeling as if her face was on fire. "You thought I'd try?" she asked.

"Before I opened the cell, I didn't know who I was talking to." Bashir pointed out. "I still don't."

Pulling her most demonic face, Ezri had to hold back the giggles when she tried to do an impression of Joran's voice. "It's so easy to impersonate uncomplicated people. This girl has no training. Her mind was easy to take over." Then she lunged forwards, her face twisting into a grin as she sprang towards the human, not taking her eyes away from his for a second.

There was a sudden red blur from the direction of the security office and the sound of the door hissing open. The blur resolved into the figure of Colonel Kira Nerys, with a phaser in firing position, just before an orange beam slammed into her chest. Bashir, suddenly recognising Ezri's actual intentions, gasped out a protest just as she pulled the trigger.

She squawked in shock as she lost control of her body, perhaps halfway to Bashir. The human moved with a speed and coordination she barely recognised from several of Jadzia's memories. Before gravity caught up with her, he'd caught her and lowered her to the deck, sliding her into the recovery position without missing a beat.

Julian!" she exclaimed, once she could think coherently again, a few seconds later. "I was just…"

The human leant forward, before undoing the front of her jumpsuit, and spraying something around the entrance to her pouch. Within a few seconds, she suddenly felt a lot less relaxed.

"Bashir to Sisko. Remind me which incarnation of Dax had the most questionable sense of humour when drunk?"

"Probably Curzon. Why?" Sisko asked, after a moment.

"Because Ezri just tried to jump me." Bashir said, straightforwardly. "At least I think it was Ezri. I'm not sure that the THIP was a good idea."

Ezri grimaced as she tried to process that information. "You drugged me." She whispered, feeling tears well up in the corner of her eyes. "I wanted to kiss you…"

"Only so I could try to help you." Bashir replied, softly. "We wanted to know who we were really dealing with."

"Put Dax back in the cell for now." Sisko instructed.

Refusing to look at Bashir or do anything to help him and Kira, Ezri allowed herself to be picked up and placed on the cell's bunk, face down. Before he let go, Bashir fielded her left arm, which was hanging by her side and folded both arms so that they lay across her back. Then he stepped back, letting go at the last possible moment, and activating the forcefield.

Even Emony couldn't have gotten to her feet and out of the cell in the handful of seconds available. Ezri just curled up into her duvet, hating herself for letting her guard down that much.

AN: Feedback is always very welcome