~Sorry for the delay - Holidays got in the way! Enjoy!~
So the mysterious girl had a name, Odo thought. Provided it wasn't all made up, of course. Odo took his time, sitting quietly across the desk from the young girl who had conveniently remembered her name during the night. His silence was unnerving her, he could tell by the marked increase in her fidgeting. Naturally this was his plan. If she was making it up, the more nervous she was the better his chances at catching her in her lie.
If he had been pressed, Odo could not have said what it was about the girl that he didn't trust. Outwardly there was nothing about the girl that contradicted her story. While unusual, her malnutrition was certainly not criminal. Her claim that she had been struck by a Cardassian on the promenade, as the doctor had reported to Odo that morning, fit the injuries she had. Although, Odo mused, her timeline was a bit off. If the last thing she remembered was being hit, then it was impossible that a Cardassian had assaulted her, as none had been on the station. Garak, the resident tailor and sole Cardassian resident on the station had been away, supposedly searching for new and rare fabric samples.
"Hmph," Odo snorted audibly, at last breaking the silence.
The girl looked up from her feet, as if expecting him to speak. Her dark, plaited hair looked almost auburn when it caught the light. It fell halfway down her back on the same clothes she had been found in. They had been cleaned, Odo noted, but he found it strange that she had not been offered something else to wear. Her tunic was threadbare in places and, although it had been cleaned, its colour was such that it gave the impression that it was permanently covered in dust.
"Have I done something wrong?" the girl, Riel, Odo reminded himself of her name, finally asked.
"Not that I'm aware of," Odo replied. "Why? Do you have something to confess to?"
"N-no," Riel stammered. "I was just wondering…why I'm in the security office."
"It was just the most convenient place," Odo said smoothly. "Captain Sisko will be joining us shortly to explain to you what your options are as we are looking for your legal guardians." Odo paused. "In the meantime, I have some questions for you, if you don't mind." His voice could have sounded almost chivalrous to an unobservant individual, but the underlying tone conveyed the assumption of compliance rather than a genuine offer.
"I'll do my best. But I already told the doctor everything I remembered." Technically this wasn't exactly true, but then again the part that Riel had left out was less a memory and more a sense of something. Apart from her name, what Riel remembered most vividly from her dream was the woman to whom she had cried out. Riel had told Dr. Bashir that she remembered her name when a woman addressed her, but what she hadn't told the doctor was everything else about the woman. The woman stood out for several different reasons. The first of which was her clothing. The woman had been Bajoran, Riel could clearly picture the woman's face in her mind's eye; but her clothing had been Cardassian. More than this oddity was the sense that this woman was important to her. She seemed too young to be her mother, but Riel couldn't shake the sense that this woman was somehow a part of her family. There was something else, something more, but Riel couldn't quite put her finger on it. Until she was certain, there was no point in looking for a woman who may or may not give her the answers she was looking for.
"You told the doctor the last thing you remember was being struck," Odo prompted her.
"Yes," Riel answered earnestly. "After that I woke up."
"You're sure that this was a memory, not merely a dream?" Odo asked.
"Of course. I wouldn't have told the doctor if I thought I'd had a bad dream. I'm not a child." More than a hint of irritation was detectable in her voice, Odo noted. "Why are you asking me this? Do you think I'd just make it all up?"
"You wouldn't be the first person who sat there and lied to me," Odo said. He hadn't intended on sounding so adversarial, but something about this girl made him feel especially antagonistic.
Before their exchange could continue, the doors opened with a hiss and Captain Sisko stepped into the office.
"Constable," he said, nodding to Odo. Odo replied in kind, standing up and moving away to one of the computer displays and busying himself there. Sisko turned to the girl sitting in front of the desk. "Hello," he said almost quietly.
The girl didn't reply, but she turned and looked at the Captain, giving him a small smile. The fire in her eyes from the conversation with Odo had dimmed.
"I understand that you've remembered some things." The Captain spoke with a kind and gentle voice.
"Just my name and…" Riel paused. There was a certain amount of shame for her in the next statement. "And this," she gestured to her now faded bruise. "I remember how I got this."
"The doctor said you remember one name," the Captain said. "We have initiated a search for your family, but without a family name this may take some time."
Riel nodded. "I still haven't remembered that."
"Until we can locate a legal guardian we've arranged other accommodations for you on the station. The Doctor said that you're free to leave the infirmary."
"Where will I stay?" Riel asked.
"There is a family on the station you can stay with until the Bajoran government makes other arrangements for you." Captain Sisko turned towards Odo, "Constable, if one of your deputies is able to show this young woman to the quarters, I would like to have a word with you."