A few hours later, Bashir, Kira, O'Brien and Odo were sitting around a table in Quark's.

"Do you know, I was almost convinced that it was Joran impersonating Ezri, just for a few seconds." Bashir said, relating his session with the young Trill. The fifth seat at the table seemed uncomfortably empty. "I didn't want to take the chance though. She was still holding a lightweight mug."

"Does anyone think she did it?" O'Brien asked. "She hasn't got a violent bone in her body."

Odo looked around at the ring of faces. "I think that all the evidence we've found points almost perfectly to her. And the last time I underestimated a suspect, I let a murderer walk free."

"Now, now, Odo, just because you got played once…" Kira interjected, teasingly, placing her hand on top of the changeling's. "We all knew you had a weakness for pretty faces a long time ago."

"Humph." Odo replied. "I just didn't want to turn someone over to the Cardassian authorities if I wasn't certain of their guilt. You had an alibi, after all. Even if it would have resulted in your execution anyway."

"What does your gut say, Odo?" O'Brien asked. "Surely you don't believe that she's capable of something like that."

"I tend to reserve judgements where I've had to intervene to stop someone stabbing another Starfleet officer with a steak knife." Odo commented. "Even if they do seem meek."

"I agree, Chief." Kira interjected. "I was part of the resistance. I know what a hardened killer looks like. How they act. I know what a soldier looks like and how they act. I know what a civilian nervously carrying a phaser is like. Jadzia was a soldier. Ezri would probably manage to defend herself, but that's it."

"What about if Joran is in control?" O'Brien asked. "How would we even know?"

"As the captain said. When she tries to kill someone else." Kira stated. "Until then… treat her as if she's our Dax. But don't give her a phaser. Or a knife."

There was a general murmuring of agreement.

"Chief, is there any way to tell when a weapon was replicated?" Bashir asked. "Or to tell who's fired it?"

"I don't know if a TR-116 would have an isotopic tag, but I can take a look." O'Brien replied.

"There is a way to tell who has fired a gun." Odo commented. "It's why I had them take swabs of Dax's hands and took her uniform. Guns produce a residue when fired that gets on clothes and skin."

"Would this mean anything in Dax's case, though?" Bashir asked. "We know she's fired a weapon already."

"But has she fired one in her quarters?" Odo asked. "Or while wearing a different uniform? That would tell us a lot."

"And if she hasn't?"

Then our pool of suspects is much wider." Odo growled. "Everyone on the station could have done it."
"What about the Vulcan that Ezri shot?" O'Brien said. "Could she be telling the truth?"

"It's possible." Odo admitted. "But if he did have a weapon, how did he get rid of it without the medical team noticing?"

"I don't know." O'Brien commented. "We'll have to find a way to prove it."

"And why would he try to shoot her?" Odo said. "She doesn't fit the pattern of being alone in her quarters at night."

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

Chu'lak seemed rather surprised when he answered the door of his quarters to find the station's chief of security standing outside.

"May I come in?" Odo asked. "I need to ask you a few questions."

The Vulcan hesitated slightly. "Certainly. Please, take a seat."

Odo flowed into a chair, taking the opportunity to sample what was on the fabric. Nothing jumped out at him, unsurprisingly, given that he was in the quarters of a Vulcan.

"Do you have any idea why you were a target?" Odo asked without preamblepre-amble.

"No." the Vulcan replied. "I have no idea why she shot me?"

Odo couldn't tell if he was lying. Damned emotional control. He thought to himself. "She?" He asked. "How did you know we'd caught someone at all?"

"It was a guess." The Vulcan replied. "When I was travelling to my quarters, shortly before I was shot, there was a Trill in the lift with me. The station counsellor. She was acting strangely. Talking to herself. She looked at me and said something like 'You're him.'"

"How did you respond?" Odo said, looking at the Vulcan curiously.

"I went to my quarters and found her file in station records. I was crossing to the door to go to the security office when… you know the rest."

"Why did you want to go to security in person, rather than call on your com-badge?" Odo challenged.

"Because it was logical that I'd be more likely to be believed in person. And it would make me harder to find if I wasn't in my quarters. I must have spent too long reading her file."

Odo harrumphed. Although the Vulcan's answers were entirely plausible, it felt to him like there was something going on that didn't stack up, somehow.

"Do you know what a TR-116 phaser is?" Odo asked, deliberately mis-identifying the type of weapon.

"No." the Vulcan replied, showing no urge to correct Odo. "Is it what was used to shoot me?"

"Yes." Odo replied. "Thank you for your time."

Then he stalked out of the room, waiting until he was in an empty turbolift to call in. "Odo to Kira. The Vulcan is either clean, or too emotionally controlled for me to catch him in a lie."

"Did you turn your recorder on?" Kira asked. "Julian's managed to book a fitting tonight."

"I don't like working with someone who bombed his own shop." Odo groused. "But he's the best spy on the station. He might spot something I've missed."

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

When Bashir strolled into Garak's shop a couple of hours later, the tailor was finishing a sale.

"I think this will go perfectly with your eyes." He said, to a Bajoran woman, handing her a bundle of fabric. "And of course, you can be sure that I will be very willing to give evidence at your divorce hearing."

She nodded to him, before leaving the shop with a spring in her step.

"What was that about, Garak?" Bashir asked.

"A small matter." The Cardassian replied. "People often ask me such trivial questions, you know. Now, you're here for the new costume, aren't you?"

He ushered Bashir into a fitting room, busying around him for a few minutes with a measure.

"I see I need to make a few more adjustments." He commented. "Really, Doctor. I'm sure those ice cream sundaes are most definitely not good for you."

"If you ever bothered to try one, Garak, you might understand." Bashir replied. "And I think you'll like the scenario waiting for us this time. The British Ambassador to Turkey has been kidnapped by ARGUS, and I've been sent to get him back."

"I see." Garak commented. "And our back-up?"

"There's a squad of Marine Commandos waiting to be told wherewere to go. Our job is to find the ambassador and protect him while they fight their way in."

"Most excellent." Bashir observed. "Now, I believe that there was another matter you wanted to consult me on as well?"

A few minutes later, Bashir and Garak were sitting in front of the viewscreen in the tailor's shop, watching the footage from Odo's hidden camera.

"He's lying about what he did after finding her file in the station records." Garak said. "And he knows that a TR-116 isn't a phaser."

"Do you think he's the killer?" Bashir asked.

"A Vulcan, killing three people at random?" Garak asked, slightly incredulously. "You know how uptight and controlled they are, Doctor. It's incredibly unlikely, to say the least."

"So why do you think he was lying?" Bashir asked.

"I have no idea." Garak admitted. "It isn't logical for him to. Unless he has something to hide, but Vulcans are not serial killers. Not usually."

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

When Bashir returned, the group reconvened in Vic's. Within moments, the singer crossed to their table, noticing that they were in Starfleet uniforms, not their more usual garments from his time period.

"Where's Ezri?" he asked. "Normally she comes in with you. With the war on, that's gonnna make a guy worry about his friends."

"She's not coming." O'Brien replied. "She's in trouble."

"What kinda trouble would happen to such a darling little girl?" Vic asked. "Anything to do with this serial killer I've heard about?"

"She's been arrested." Odo filled in. "For all three murders."

"What?" Vic asked. "Why?"

"Because I found her holding an identical weapon, somewhere she shouldn't have been at that time of night, and she used it to shoot someone just as I entered the room." Odo stated. "At the time, I had very few doubts about her innocence."

"And now you do, huh?"

"New evidence has since made me question my initial judgement." Odo said. "But…"

"That's your gut talkin', right?"

"Indeed. All the evidence we've found, all the witnesses we've spoken to… they all point straight to her."

"So why ain'tcha convinced?"

"Because I've known Dax for six years." Odo replied. "Even though Ezri isn't Jadzia, they're not that different. And… she doesn't feel like the type of personality that would do this."

"Normally, I'd spin you a yarn about Sin City, but I don't have a story like this." Vic replied, before crossing to the stage and taking his place in front of the microphone. "This is a real classic everyone." He said, gesturing to his band. "From Sonny Curtis and the Crickets, I bring you…" He gestured dramatically to his band, who started up with a guitar riff. "I fought the law."

He paused, letting the music get into its stride, before starting to sing. "Breakin' rocks in the hot sun, I fought the law and the law won, I fought the law and the law won…"

Looking over at Bashir, O'Brien noticed that the doctor appeared to be blinking back tears.

"Julian?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"If they don't take the symbiont away… that's what'll happen to Ezri." He said. "Removing Dax would kill her, so under the principles of Federation law… the only option is a life sentence. For both of them. Even if Bajoran law doesn't follow all of them, not executing people is usually the first step when a species is working towards joining the Federation. Particularly if that person is or was a Starfleet officer."

O'Brien placed a hand on the shoulder of his closest friend. "They won't. We'll prove she's innocent, don't you worry." He reassured Bashir.

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

After nearly a day stewing in a cell, Ezri was surprised to realise that she was hungry when Sisko arrived, carrying two bowls of what looked like stew on a tray.

"I thought you'd be hungry, Old Man." He said, stepping to one side of the cell's entrance. He deactivated the forcefield, before handing Ezri the tray, keeping a bowl for himself. While she was still adjusting to holding it, he re-activated the forcefield.

"Ben…" Ezri said. "You don't need to do that. Joran isn't in control."

Sisko looked uncomfortable. "I can't take the chance, Dax. You know that. Particularly after you tried to jump Bashir earlier. What were you thinking?"

Ezri couldn't contain the venomous glare she aimed at her oldest friend. "That you drugged me." She shouted at Sisko. "I wasn't in control of my actions… even less than usual now…"

The situation was only made worse when Joran decided to chime in. "I thought that throwing herself at anything with a pulse was Jadzia's hobby." He commented, sarcastically.

Sisko grimaced. "I'm sorry, Old Man. We were trying to help you by finding out what was really going on. I should never have asked Julian to betray your trust like that."

"No." Ezri said, poking at the stew with a plastic spork that'd been on the tray. "You shouldn't have."

"Are you going to eat that, Old Man?"

"Not until you convince me it isn't drugged. I trusted you, Ben. I trusted Julian."

"I had to order him to do it, you know." Sisko said. "I'm sorry."

He opened the forcefield again and held his hand out for the tray.

"You know you want to throw it in his face." Joran chimed in. "He's betrayed you. He admits he doesn't trust you."

"No." Ezri responded, wondering why she wanted to defend her friend, before taking a cautious spoonful of the stew. It didn't taste like it'd come out of a replicator, to her not-great surprise. Sisko's enjoyment of cooking was something Curzon and Jadzia had both greatly appreciated, and which she was starting to do as well. Although she remembered a time Jadzia had been hit on the fingers with a ladle. "That stung." She said, out loud.

"What did?" Sisko asked.

"When you hit Jadzia with a ladle for trying to pour the leftover soup into her bowl without asking. And knowing that you didn't trust me enough not to drug me."

"Dax, if you were being controlled by Joran, unless he's a lot more patient than he was in my mind, we'd have known. He'd probably have used Tobin and Jadzia's memories to help dismantle the forcefield generator. I know Julian didn't recover the spoon from your cup of tea when he locked you back up. And I know that, regardless of build quality, keeping an engineer in a cell who has access to any form of tool is almost impossible."

Ezri didn't really know what to say. "So you don't think I'm being controlled?" she asked. "Now that you've drugged me?"

"I don't." Sisko replied. "However, right now, you're still the prime suspect. And I know that you say it was the Vulcan science officer you shot, but Odo has interviewed him. He admitted that he doesn't trust him in the slightest, but he couldn't catch him in a lie."

"He's lying." Ezri insisted, slightly sulkily. "And don't think I'm forgetting this, Benjamin. Even if I understand why you did it. Even if I know Curzon used to think it funny to do that to you on occasion. You know how it feels to realise…"

"That I'd been drugged." Sisko completed. "I also know that I often learnt things when he did that to me. You really let yourself relax around Julian, even if that was the drug. As for Chu'lak, we can't prove he is lying yet, Dax." Sisko said. "And, either way, keeping you in here makes sure there won't be any more killings. Even if it isn't comfortable."

"I know." Ezri admitted, not looking at Sisko. "Maybe I'll take Jake to Vic's and turn off the holosuite's anti-drunkenness system." Her tone of voice was more playful, although it was a form of playful that Sisko remembered from Curzon all too well.

"Don't you dare." Sisko said, although he allowed himself a smile. "He's not nearly old enough for that yet. You know, there was another lieutenant who turned up in my office not too long ago, with a Bajoran in tow…"

They finished their meal with a more companionable conversation, before Sisko retrieved all the crockery. he left behind a large, clear, lightweight and shatterproof jug of water, alongside a glass made of the same material.

He also left a PADD, clearly from the same catalogue as her communicator or the viewscreen she'd been given but ignored. Booting it up, she discovered that it carried her entire collection of novels.

Then she curled up on the uncomfortable bunk and opened a book that she knew would annoy Joran. He was being quieter than before, which told her that he was planning something. Or that he was as bored as she was sitting in a cell, staring at the wall or out of a forcefield.

AN: Feedback is welcomed and encouraged.