Chapter Nine

Sound he couldn't make sense of. Light he couldn't make sense of. His body hurt, and he was so tired. When Quark finally came to, it felt like something he had attempted many times before and failed. He only had a vague sense of where he was. Some sort of medical facility. A male hu-man in a Starfleet uniform came in, speaking in a voice that was much too loud. Everything was too loud in here.

"Quark! Thank goodness! How are you feeling?"

He was waiting for something to make sense, but nothing was. He couldn't remember why he was here, and he wasn't sure he trusted this hu-man, with his overly cheerful expression. And, he was looking at him like he expected something. When he made a move to examine him, Quark bared his teeth and hissed at him.

Just leave me alone. Just turn down the lights and leave me alone, he thought to himself, but this hu-man insisted on bothering him.

"Quark, talk to me. Can you talk to me?"

"What...want?"

The doctor looked puzzled. "To help you, Quark. To help you."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a doctor, and that's what I do. Quark… do you know who I am?"

"No."

"I'm Doctor Bashir."

… Didn't recognize him.

"Quark, hold on for just a moment."

Quark closed his eyes. Tuned the hu-man out as he was talking to someone. At least he wasn't bothering him anymore. He rested until he heard a voice speaking his language.

"Uncle Quark!"

Opened his eyes. A Ferengi standing there, in a Starfleet uniform. Was this a joke? The hu-man made another move toward him. Hissed at him again. Why wouldn't these people leave him alone?

"Quark, you recognize your nephew, don't you?" What kind sick plot were they enacting here?

"No."

"Doctor, what's wrong with him?"

"His system is very stressed. He's confused."

Stressed from what. This made no sense. Someone else burst in. Finally, Little Brother.

"Brother!"

"Tell them… leave me alone."

"Father, he doesn't know who we are."

"He doesn't? Brother, do you know who I am?"

"...Idiot."

"He does know me! Brother, I can't tell them to leave you alone. Doctor Bashir is taking care of you. And Nog's my son, your nephew."

"Maybe best not to overload him at the moment. I just want to get a sensor scan, see if there's anything that I can give him to support him at the moment, but he keeps hissing at me."

"Brother, no hissing! Try again, Doctor."

The hu-man moved toward him. Hissed at him, again.

"Brother! Doctor, could I do the scan?" After another brief exchange he tuned out, Little Brother came over, hissed at him, but he got the scan anyway. Huh, it didn't hurt.

"Rest, Brother." That's what he'd been trying to do, he thought, as he closed his eyes, this time drifting off to sleep once again.

Woke up again. Little Brother sitting by. Bad pain. Bad pain. Worse than before. Why were they torturing him like this. Couldn't speak. Gestured to write. Little Brother got a pad. Wrote, 'Let me go.' He said no. Heard him say: "This is my payback, Brother. For everything you've put me through. Just like when Brunt hired those thugs to beat you up."

If he was not going to let him go, he better hold on to him, and he reached out for the idiot's hand. He reached back.

Can overhear Rom talking. Moogie's talking too. With the Constable. Must be imagining it.

"So, what did my son do this time?"

"Moogie, can't that wait?"

"I just want someone to sympathize with me about how hard it was raising Quark! And from what you told me, this man can. Just imagine how much trouble he has caused you, and then picture, even for a moment, what it was like to be his mother.

"I should have known he was going to difficult. In fact I did, but I ignored my intuition because I was so in love with your father, but the pregnancy was difficult, the birth was difficult. He was a miserable baby, kept me up at all hours of the night.

"He was so trying I almost refused to have another child, but, like I said, I was very much in love with your father and he wanted another. Lucky for me I listened, because then I gave birth to this sweet soul. Moogie loves you, Rommie-kins!"

"Aww, Moogie!"

Wondered why he didn't imagine a more flattering conversation. And probably imagined the next part too, when the Constable came in alone to see him.

"Quark… Get better."

And he did. After many days passed. Incoherently, excruciatingly. A few moments of clarity, comprehending the voices and faces of people around him, but mostly not. Mercifully dropping into unconsciousness, only to wake feeling less rested than before. Just trying to weather the storm.

Yet he did get better. The confusion passed, the pain became tolerable, the sounds and sights around him formed into something he could understand again. He was able to have brief conversations with people, eat some solid food, and take his first shaky steps around sickbay.

"Congratulations, Quark! You're clear to go!" said Doctor Bashir happily, as Quark wearily sat on the edge of the bio-bed.

He was lucky to be alive. The Doctor told him so, but he knew it too by the way his body felt. He currently felt terrible, which was multitudes better than how he had felt.

The story of him hissing at the Doctor had made its rounds around the station, to the crew's amusement – he guessed they found it funny now that he wasn't dying – as had the news that Moogie was seeing the Grand Nagus, and he had made it possible for her to come to Deep Space Nine. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

Moogie and the Nagus headed on home after he was discharged from sick-bay, having seen him through the worst of it. He briefly popped into the bar, where he received wishes for a speedy recovery, but the Doctor advised him to take some time off to rest. Not that he needed to be advised, he couldn't have worked if he wanted to. He was debilitatingly tired, so his quarters were where he stayed. And after this whole poisoning business, well, he was more shaken than he cared to admit. It had been a nightmare, a nightmare maze of delirium, exhaustion, and pain. And that was just what he could remember.

He missed working, the energy of the crowd, the excitement of having a deal in the making. Rom and Nog were overseeing the bar for him in his absence. Moogie helped him, and – adding insult to injury – they together turned a better profit than he ever had. So much for being a great businessman – he already knew Moogie could make more money than him, now he knew she could also run his bar better.

And who knew what kind of opportunities Moogie would get now that she was seeing the Nagus. What a pair they were, head over heels in love with each other. Add that to Rom and Leeta's talks of getting married. Nog was still besotted with Starfleet of course.

It was… humbling. He wouldn't have approved of any of it, but it was happening and he couldn't do a thing to stop it. And they were all happy as could be. Strange, how life turned out.

He was shuffling around his quarters, needing a change of pace from sitting late one night when he heard the door bell. He called out "Enter," without bothering to turn around. The Doctor checked in, but he did so earlier in the day. The only one who would come by now was Rom, but when Quark turned around to greet him, he froze. It wasn't Rom; it was Odo.

Odo asked if he could come in, but Quark could tell it was just a formality. He was coming in no matter what Quark said. Quark nodded, and he stepped purposefully inside and the doors closed behind him while Quark tried to gauge why hr was here.

His body language gave nothing away. He stood erect as usual, head held high, hands clasped behind his back looking straight at him, and Quark felt his stomach drop away. He was not up for this; he didn't have the reserves to go to bat with Odo right now, whether it was a legal charge or their personal business. But, he had no intention of showing that, as he relaxed his posture as best he could, and smoothly asked, "What brings you here tonight, Constable?"