Dukat's hand closed around her throat and his face was millimetres from hers, teeth bared, and face contorted with anger. "I told you before, Raina. I don't want you talking to that doctor."
"I'm sorry." She cried.
"Get on the bed." He growled.
Raina dejectedly did as she was told. She knew what was coming and she accepted her fate. She felt that hand on the back her neck and her clothes being torn…..
Raina woke up with a start, breathing heavily and skin covered in a sheen of sweat. That feeling of shame engulfed her, and she sobbed uncontrollably. Ever since the Dominion had abducted her, she had the nightmares on a nightly basis.
She never told anyone about the abuse that she suffered at the hands of Dukat. They had a good relationship once, but something changed. He turned into a man that she was terrified of.
She looked at the time and decided to see if Kira was awake. She needed to talk to someone before she crumbled. She tapped her combadge. "Captain Cavendish to Commander Kira."
"Kira here." Came the sleepy reply.
"Are you busy, Kira. I need someone to talk to."
Kira must have picked up the emotion in Raina as she was at her door in seconds. "Are you ok, Raina. You've been crying."
Raina slumped down on her sofa, her head in her hands. "I need to confess something."
"What?" Kira joined her on the sofa.
"I lied about Dukat trying to sell me out to the Dominion."
Kira rubbed her friends back. "Why?"
"I needed to get away and couldn't face the truth." Raina summoned up the courage to look at her. "He raped me."
Kira felt like she had been slapped around the face. "How many times?"
"I don't know." Raina wiped her tears away. "He changed after he found Ziyal. There was a lot of jealousy towards Julian." She felt sick to her stomach. "The last time was when I just found out I was pregnant. I had to go and see Julian. Dukat went insane and I told him I was pregnant, and he said he didn't care."
Kira pulled Raina into her arms, holding her while she sobbed. "Does Damar know any of this?"
Raina pulled herself upright and shook her head. "Just telling you makes me want to die inside. I lied to everyone and I'm scared they'll hate me."
"He abused you, Raina and after everything you've been through already, no one is going to judge you for trying to get away."
"When Damar got me on the shuttle, I was ready to kill him, so I didn't have to see Dukat again." She felt guilty for thinking about killing Damar, but she couldn't face Dukat. "I have a regular dream where I'm in a dark cave and Dukat has his hands around my neck, slowly choking the life out of me."
"I wish you had told me. I could have helped."
"I nearly did, and I nearly told Garak, but I just couldn't get the words out. Every time I tried I felt like I was going to be sick."
"Raina, when you go back to your ship, you need to promise me that you'll tell your Counsellor."
Raina nodded. "I had to tell someone before it ate me from the inside out."
"I'm pleased that you trusted me with this."
"Please don't tell anyone else." Raina pleaded.
"I won't." Kira reassured her as she stood up. "You should tell Damar."
When Kira left, Raina felt that the burden that she felt had been taken from her shoulders. It was a relief to not have to hold in all that pain.
Damar waited down a quiet alley for his friend Gul Rusot to arrive. It was time for him to rise up against the Dominion, but he needed help to do it. Finally, Rusot arrived with company. "Took your time, Sigol."
"Don't whine, Corat. It's beneath you."
"I've made the arrangements. We are going to launch an attack on Rondac III."
"Are you mad?" Gul Seskal.
"Do you have a better suggestion?" Damar asked but was his question was met with silence. "We need soldiers to carry this off."
"Leave that to me." Rusot replied.
"This is just the first strike against the Dominion." Damar warned. "We have given too much and given nothing in return. Are we all in agreement that this is necessary?"
"We are with you on this, Corat." Rusot and the others agreed.
"Good. I'll contact you when it's time to go."
Rusot waited for the others to leave before he questioned Damar about his information on Rondac III. "Can you trust the information?"
"Yes?" Damar replied quickly. "It is from a reliable source. She would never let me down."
"Who is it?"
"The mother of my daughters." He smiled proudly as he thought of Raina and the girls. "You may have heard of Captain Raina Cavendish?"
"Isn't that the woman, Dukat was obsessed with?" Damar nodded. "How did you become her latest Cardassian?"
"It's a long story."
"I hope she's good in bed." Rusot remarked with a smirk as he walked away.
"You don't know the half of it." Damar replied with a smug grin.
Raina had barely been back on her ship for more than a week when she had to ask her crew for a massive favour.
She had recently discovered some intel on Rondac III that could cause Damar and his resistance members to lose their lives. That wasn't something she could allow to happen.
She paced the meeting room as she waited for her Bajoran crew members to arrive. She has summoned them to ask them for permission to aid the Cardassians. Yes, she could order them, but out of respect for her Bajoran crew, she wanted their permission.
More than a dozen Bajorans entered the meeting room, including the first officer, Commander Surmak. "All Bajorans accounted for, Captain." Surmak quipped, but when he saw her face, his smirk fell. "What is it, Raina?"
"I have something I need to ask all of you." Raina sighed as she took a sip of her cup of tea. "The Cardassians need help. I'm asking you out of respect because of the history between Cardassia and Bajor. If just one of you says no, then I'll understand and I'll go it alone."
"What exactly do they need help with?" Asked a Bajoran crewman.
"They are going to strike against the Dominion, and I need to be there."
Surmak could see the fear in her eyes and he knew there was a deeper reason for her wanting to help. He approached her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Are you going to tell us the real reason?"
Raina clutched his hand and fought back the tears. "I need to be there for the girl's father. I love him and I can't let him die."
"That's all we need to know."
A young crewman stepped forward. "Permission to speak?"
"Granted." Surmak nodded.
"I speak for not just us Bajorans but for all of the crew." He began. "While we may not ever claim to like Cardassians, we do trust your judgement."
The others in the room murmured in agreement. "We appreciate you asking us, but we are Starfleet. If our Captain needs us, we are there." Said a Lieutenant.
"Thank you." Raina was grateful for her crew and she would find a way to reward them.
The USS Colchester carefully entered Cardassian space, using a small Nebula near Rondac III to hide them from enemy ship sensors. They released a probe to settle near some floating rocks, in hope Damar's ship would investigate it.
As predict, a small vessel scanned the probe. Raina just hoped that Damar would understand the message inside.
"What is it?" Damar asked.
"A probe, Damar. Federation by the looks of it." Gul Ekoor replied. "There's an audio stream attached."
"Play it." Damar listened as a gentle vocal humming played. He recognised the tune and then he realised what it was. "Ekoor, fly us into that Nebula."
"What is it?" Rusot asked.
"My reliable source has arrived to give us a hand."
Raina smiled when the shuttle entered the Nebula. "Hail them, Ensign Grimes." Raina stood up and moved closer to the view screen. "And what are you up to?"
"Waiting for our troops to arrive." In second, all of things he'd like to do to Raina flashed through his mind. If only he could get on her ship.
"We need to discuss your little jaunt to Rondac III. Why don't you come aboard?"
"That would agreeable."
Barely twenty minutes later, Raina was pinned against a wall and the rock solid Cardassian body of Damar. Clothes were pawed at in a desperate bid to get them off between hungry kisses. So caught in a lustful haze they were, the ship could have been collapsing around them and they wouldn't have noticed.
They collapsed together in a tangled heap on the sofa of her cabin, shedding items of clothing on the way. Raina was drowning in Damar as his lips teased at the skin of neck and chest. His hand caressed her shoulder and come to a rest on her neck.
Raina gasped suddenly as she felt the squeeze around her neck. When she pushed Damar up slightly so she could see him, she froze in fear. It wasn't Damar, it was Dukat. She used all her strength to push him off and fled to the bathroom, vomiting violently before collapsing on the floor.
She felt like she couldn't breathe, like Dukat's hands were still around her throat. She vomited again. With a shaky hand, she reached up and grabbed a cloth from the sink so she could wipe the sweat from her face.
Damar rushed into the bathroom to find her slumped on the floor, breathing heavily and sweating. "Raina, what's wrong?" He asked as he knelt to the floor beside her.
Fear blazed through Raina like a wildfire, but she had to face it. She couldn't keep living with the burden of keeping Dukat's abuse a secret. "Corat, I'm going to talk, and I need you to not say anything until I've finished. Can you do that?"
Corat sat properly beside her. "I can."
"When you got me on that shuttle to take me back to Dukat, I was moments away from incapacitating you. I could have killed you if I meant I didn't have to see that "man" again." She tugged at the cloth in her hands, focusing on that rather than summoning up the courage to look at Damar. "The first time he raped me, I felt like I imagined the whole thing. It didn't feel real. He was so full of apologies and he cried on his knees, begging me forgiveness. Like a fool, I forgave him."
"He got insanely jealous of Julian and forbade me from ever speaking to him. If he ever saw me near him, he'd beat and rape me." Tears slipped down her face. "I tried anything I could to get off the station when I knew he'd be there."
"The last time he raped me, I had just found out I was pregnant." Her hands immediately went to her throat. "I had to go to Julian to get it confirmed and Dukat saw us hugging. He was so angry, I really believed that he would kill me. When I told him that I was pregnant, he said "I don't care."
"I had to get away from him. I couldn't let him be around Cora, so I faked the messages about him selling me out to the Dominion. It was easier than dealing with the shame of what he had done to me." Raina rested her head against her knees and waited for Damar to speak.
Damar couldn't form the words in his head. He had admired Dukat and treated him as both a friend and mentor. Who was he really? He looked at the woman he was in love with and it hurt. She cowered, scared and vulnerable. He couldn't change the past, but he could give her what she clearly needed, love and support. He grabbed her robe down from its hook and wrapped it around her half naked from before pulling her into his arms. "I won't let him hurt you again, Raina. Anything it takes to keep you safe."
"I want to hold my babies." She whispered.
"Get someone to bring them here."
A few minutes later, the teacher arrived with both girls. Cora squealed excitedly when she saw Damar. "Dada." With the speed a bullet, she sprinted towards him and was immediately swept up into his arms.
"Hello, my little troublemaker. Did you miss me?" Damar kissed Cora's chubby cheeks, making her squeal with delight. "Have you been a good girl?"
"Uh huh." Cora wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. "Miss you."
"Can I give your sister a cuddle?"
"Ok." Cora waited until she was put down before she tried to climb up on the sofa with a toy, eventually able to do it.
Damar took his youngest in his arms, before sitting down beside Cora. He kissed both girls on the head, happy to be back with them, even if it was just a brief visit.
Raina watched Damar played with the girls. She had worried about the future when she would have to be honest with Cora about her true parentage, but she hoped that Damar's fatherly love would be mean Cora didn't feel like she had missed out. They made a happy family and eventually Damar's son, Cadim would be sat with them to complete the picture.