A/N - Here's the first chapter for today. I'll upload the next one late tonight. I did one last quick edit before I put it on here so forgive any errors you find, please. I hope you all have a great, positive day!

Rekar stood and waited in anticipation. The former Obsidian Order agent assured him that it would take about fifteen minutes to go to Miss Sisko's quarters and bring her back. But that time was beat by three minutes as the connection opened up again and there before him on-screen was the face of the woman he realized he was going to have great difficulty living without. Her cousin's claim, that she was no longer eating, stood before him, as well. The contours of her face were most certainly slimmer!

She simply stared in disbelief at first and then her face broke into a large gentle grin. "Hi! How are you?" she asked so very sweetly.

His heart was melting in his side at that sweetness. "I am more than tolerable at this moment." He then confessed, "I have not done well without you."

She shook her head and looked away, trying to deny his words. "We'd only just met, Rekar, that doesn't make any sense."

"And yet I know you haven't been well without me either."

She gave him a serious side-eye 'look'. "You been spying on me?"

"No! I received an angry message from your cousin. What is this about you barely eating and sleeping? He blames me, has accused me of doing something unscrupulous to you to cause this sadness." He then began to chastise her, "What is this, woman? Must I return to Deep Space 9 and stand over your bed to ensure you sleep? Must I sit at your table and feed you with my own hands?"

Jamie Lee somehow jumbled the image in her mind and couldn't help but think of him standing over her bed while holding a plate of food. She started to laugh at the mental picture, her hilarity high and sharp. Then that laughter turned to tears. She had never done such an intimate thing like eating from the same plate with anyone.

He had heard the expression in the Federation, 'broken heart'. But never in all his years had Rekar felt the sensation of a breaking heart. He had guarded himself all of his life, took precautions that no one could get close enough to pierce his outer armor. But now he felt that sensation of a twisting in his side, an almost rending tear as he watched her. Here stood this ordinarily very strong young woman coming to pieces and it was over him. Before, he would have regarded such a show as weakness or intentional manipulation. But he knew she wouldn't show this side of herself to just anyone. He knew this meant she was revealing who she truly was to him. She did not realize it, but already she belonged to him! "Come to me on Romulus," he begged.

She shook her head and quickly wiped her tears. "No. It isn't right."

"Why not?" he asked, obviously pained, confused by her resistance.

"I know next to nothing about your people, your customs. A woman should never step into a situation like that blind and I am really blind about all of this right now! I can't let my emotions dictate what I do. That's dangerous."

He never thought he would hear a human say such a thing, that they could not let their emotions pick their course. It was, of course, admirable to him. But he did wish at that moment that his Jamie would be a little weaker simply so he could have what it was he wished. "You are correct," he nodded as he watched the now silent tears track down her face.

"Besides, for now I have my life and you have yours. It's not like either of us don't have anything to do or something. I even got another editing gig. Oh! And I quit the restaurant!"

"Good!" he said. "That place was abominable."

She found herself laughing as she wiped her tears away once again.

"I have another deal for you, Jamie."

She looked up in exasperation. "Enough with the deals, Rekar!"

"No, this one truly will be to both our advantage. We should speak this way, via subspace, once a week. And we send messages back and forth anytime we may wish for the time being until we mutually decide what we should do about this literal distance between us."

She looked at him as if she were amazed. "I never got to thank you for the earrings, by the way. They're the most beautiful gift anyone's ever given to me."

He saw she wouldn't answer him about keeping in contact. He swallowed back pain. "They were given with thoughts from the deepest part of me. They are inadequate compared to what I truly wish to give to someone like you."

She knew this call couldn't go on forever and let her eyes feast on his. "Rekar," she said as if it hurt to speak his name. "We're so different! Would your people even accept me?"

"I do not care!" he declared hotly. "I do not care about whatever differences we maintain. Our hearts beat as one, do they not? And it wouldn't be the first time a union such as this has occurred," he informed her.

"Oh, that's right! I've heard about several of your Senators. What is it with you guys? You suddenly have a human woman fetish or something?"

"I don't know," he said. "But I am aware that even Vreenak has recently entered into something with a human and he is no senator. I would not be the only one."

"Vreenak. You mean that one that looks like a velociraptor?"

"What is that?"

"It's a type of dinosaur."

He still looked mystified.

"Forget I said that." She swallowed and then nodded. "Okay. I'll do it."

"Okay?" he asked, his hopes rising.

"Okay. We talk once a week and we send messages back and forth for now. We can figure out a lot that way."

"I wish you were with me right now," he said with a fixed stare. "Anytime you want, you may come here to me on Romulus. My home is empty and so is my life. You may come anytime you wish and fill it. Is my meaning clear?"

She found tears in her eyes again. She nodded rapidly as she tried to blink them away. "Yes, you are."

The call ended then. There was one thing that bothered her very much. He never said he loved her. That might have induced her to blindly go into the Romulan Empire just to see him. But until she heard that word, she was not putting her life on hold for someone else, deal or no deal.

She walked out of Garak's shop and he was outside waiting for her. "You seem to be doing much better, my dear," he said with his enigmatic smile.

"I do feel a little bit better."

"And now?"

She shrugged. "Now we see what happens next, right?"

A cloud passed over his expression. "Be careful, my dear. Always watch your step. A man such as Rekar, he must have enemies. But most dangerous of all can be those who would consider themselves his closest allies that may regard you as his weakness. Be wary at all times. Will you do that for me?"

Jamie Lee sensed baggage in that advice. She didn't know where it came from, but she nodded in agreement. "I'll watch my back, Garak, I promise."

"And when possible, I shall watch it as well." His expression lightened then. "I must open my shop soon! I have three pairs of trousers that still need mending."

There was a sudden angry snap in her expression as she remembered something he had said earlier that morning. "There are betting pools about me, huh?"

Garak actually looked slightly panicked. "Now, Jamie Lee, don't do anything you'll re-"

"I'm going to Quark's right now!"

From that look on her face, Garak got right out of the way as she stormed past him.

She made her way to Quark's, not entirely sure of what her goal happened to be. Mr. Garak's words were ringing in her ears about some of the station looking at her to see if her waistline would expand. She realized, then, that she had been getting strange looks from time to time, in particular hard staring at her tummy. And when she'd quit, her ex-boss didn't exactly look so surprised. The whole station probably thought she had quit that job because of a high-risk hybrid pregnancy!

Quark hadn't opened for the day yet, but the gate he usually locked up when he left was open at that time. She walked in through his doorway rapidly and stood in front of the owner of the establishment, hands on her hips. "Why are people looking at my stomach?"

He tried to play it off. "Why Jamie Lee! So good to see you! Everyone is just commenting on your rapid weight loss!"

"I heard there are betting pools," she said between clenched teeth.

"You're small enough now and I hear you're working a lot. You must want to rack in the latinum from your rate of work and I've been meaning to tell you, you could make a lot of credits as a dabo girl!" he said rapidly as he tried to deflect her from the subject.

"Mr. Quark!" she yelled.

He paused as he looked at the expression on her face. "Has anyone ever told you you're absolutely gorgeous when you get angry?" he finally said. He was absolutely serious.

"I'm here trying to get answers as to why everyone is trying to figure out if I'm pregnant and you're flirting with me?" she said, outraged. "Stop the betting pools! I know you and I know the pregnancy one CAN'T BE the only one! So stop them ALL!"

"I have an arrangement for you, then. I have no children. If your womb is unoccupied at the moment-"

Jamie's temper got the better of her. "One more word out of your mouth and, so help me, I will slap you SO HARD your Grand Nagus will feel it!"

It was obvious from the stupid grin on his face he didn't believe her. So she faked him out by raising her hand as if she would slap him. He jumped back a little, startled, and she gave him the angriest face ever as she turned away from him.

"Wow, what a woman!" he murmured as she stormed out of his establishment.

"Men!" was the only thing she shouted as she threw her hands up on the way out.