AN: Here's the second (and last) part of this little adventure in the life of Lwaxana and Odo.
I hope you enjoy! If you do enjoy, please do let me know what you think! I love hearing from you!
111
Odo had barely had time to check in with Duras, a Berivian who was acting in his place on Deep Space Nine whenever he was away with Lwaxana or handling things for the Federation, and to get everything up to date before he became aware of an overall kind of chaos in the air around the station. Odo sent Duras to start finding out what he could, and Odo made a direct line toward Quark's.
Moving toward Quark's was practically like swimming upstream in a waterway teeming with lifeforms that wanted desperately to go in the other direction. If he'd dared to change his shape, Odo could have moved among them much easier, but as it was, he was almost steadily bumping into someone. He might have thought that some part of the station was on fire, but nobody really seemed to be fleeing a fire. Instead, he noticed a few characteristics that were common of everyone moving in the general direction of the infirmary: there were people covering their mouths, moving quickly, as though they were clearly going to be sick, there were individuals holding their heads and grumbling about headaches, there were some individuals who were squabbling with each other even as they walked, and there were some who were weeping bitterly.
Odo didn't disturb anyone's movement until he came face to face with Commander Sisko. The man looked angry, and it wasn't difficult to figure out which of the obvious symptoms he was suffering, since he was holding his fingers against his temple.
"Commander—what's happening?" Odo asked.
Sisko looked at him with an angrily furrowed brow. It was possible, Odo decided immediately, that people were suffering from more than one of the available issues.
"I don't know, Constable, but I'm assuming it has something to do with Lwaxana Troi," Sisko said. "It's all too reminiscent of that…that Xanthi fever she brought on the station, and it started after she arrived."
Odo felt uneasy. Lwaxana was a mature Betazoid. Many individuals—Odo included—wrongly assumed that meant Betazoids who were past their proverbial prime. In reality, it meant Betazoids whose mental capacities had finally fully matured. Mature Betazoids were, in general, more powerful than immature ones, and Lwaxana happened to have some capabilities that went beyond the norm for her species. In addition, there was a virus, Xanthi fever, that often affected mature Betazoids and caused them to project their feelings outward and onto others. It could be treated, but there was a residual effect that never really went away—once infected, the mature Betazoid had to consciously hold back their emotions. Otherwise, they projected a little of what they felt on those in their company. The residual effect was permanent and essentially untreatable. Lwaxana had once suffered from Xanthi fever.
Odo could easily feel what Lwaxana felt. He liked attributing that to the fact that she was his Imzadi—his Beloved—and Betazoids shared a very powerful and special connection with their imzadis, but he had also seen her accidentally drop her guard and emotionally move those around her thanks to the long-term effects of the fever she'd once had.
"Lwaxana has…been projecting lately," Odo admitted. "I'm sure it's just temporary."
"How long is that woman going to be on my station?" Sisko asked with palpable annoyance.
Odo felt his entire form tense and prickle.
"That woman?" He asked. "Am I to understand that, by that woman, you mean to say Lwaxana?"
Sisko sighed with annoyance.
"Yes, Lwaxana," Sisko said. "I can't have her disrupting the entire station. Quark's has been cleared out. Every workstation is down workers. Dr. Bashir is overloaded in the infirmary, and we've had to call in a state of emergency. The Enterprise is close-by, and they're sending their medical team just to try to get a hand on what's happening right now. We can't do this every time she has a…an attack or a fit."
Odo reminded himself that Sisko was no more himself than anyone else who could be greatly influenced by Lwaxana's moods. Still, he felt anger—his own, he was sure, and not the anger that everyone seemed to be drawing from the air around them.
"She is my wife, Commander," Odo said. "And she will be here whenever I am here. If you would wish to be rid of one of us, then you will be rid of the both of us. If our presence is an inconvenience, we will speak to someone and ask to be permanently relocated."
"Odo—I didn't mean for you…"
"The station is my home, Commander," Odo said. "However, Lwaxana is more my home than the station has ever been or will ever be. If I must choose, I don't even need to hesitate. I will always choose Lwaxana."
Sisko sighed and pressed at his temples.
"I'm sure that's not what I meant," he admitted, shaking his head. "I'm sure—none of this is what I mean. Odo—I'm going to the infirmary. If you're able to withstand whatever this is, please help to make sure there's some kind of order until the Enterprise's medical team can arrive and offer help."
"I will do my best to keep the situation under control," Odo agreed.
Odo's idea for keeping things under control as much as possible was to make his way directly to Quark's. He ran into Quark on the way there, but the Ferengi was obviously ill, and he didn't even bother to speak to Odo. When Odo made it into the bar, he found it abandoned except for one being who sat at a table and picked at something on a plate.
Odo rested his hands on Lwaxana's shoulders as he approached her from behind.
"Beloved…"
"Oh—Odo…" Lwaxana said. Odo was used to hearing just that collection of sounds from Lwaxana, in just that order, but the tone of them changed the meaning each time he heard them.
"Where are the Adeltins?" Odo asked.
"The Federation hardly needed my help with them, Odo," Lwaxana said. "Their brains are smaller than Merovian tree nuts, and they're motivations are easier to read than a Ferengi's. I could have reported on them in less than five minutes. They've both taken ill and, when they're better, someone should escort them to a holding cell until they can be dealt with. Their plan would never work, Odo, but their intentions were malevolent."
Odo tapped his combadge and relayed the information to Duras that the Adeltins should be detained until further notice with the knowledge that the Federation would be in touch, and pulled a chair over so that he could sit beside Lwaxana. She looked at him with sad eyes.
"Did you make your report?" He asked.
"Not yet," she said. "I will."
"Will you talk to me, Beloved?" Odo asked. He looked around. "There's nobody else here," he said with a laugh. "Just me."
Lwaxana seemed to have hardly noticed that she was alone. She seemed to hardly notice it even now.
"This morning, Beverly said the life signs were strong," Lwaxana said. "This morning, I had two babies—and at least one was likely to live, Odo…and then I come here, and…"
"Dr. Bashir is not responsible for anything that happens. Not anymore than we are, Lwaxana," Odo said, trying to be as delicate as he could.
"No," Lwaxana said. "I know that. I understand. And it's hard to explain, but…I simply like the way that Beverly says things. I like the way she thinks them. She's a mother, Odo, and I don't know how to explain that…"
"You don't have to," Odo assured her. "Lwaxana—let's go back to our quarters. We'll check on Veta and Mr. Homn. I have a feeling that, very soon, you'll have the undivided attention of Dr. Crusher."
Lwaxana furrowed her brow at him.
"Everyone is unwell, Lwaxana," Odo said. "The entire station seems to be coming down with something that, forgive me, seems to be a great deal like the symptoms you've reported since becoming pregnant with our little ones."
She frowned at him.
"Oh—I didn't mean to cause any trouble," Lwaxana said.
"No real harm's been done," Odo assured her. "The Enterprise is nearby. They're sending their medical staff to assist. I don't imagine that they'll have to work too long to solve the problem. Come, Lwaxana. Let's go rest. Dr. Crusher will know where to find us."
111
Odo had been right about Dr. Crusher finding them. In their quarters, Lwaxana made her report about the Adeltins, and then she sat with Veta on her lap while Odo played a game with them of entertaining Veta by becoming all his favorite things to stir up his laughter. None of their little family was unwell—Mr. Homn included—but Odo suspected that was at least partially owing to the fact that they were often exposed to Lwaxana and, therefore, were perhaps more immune to the effects of her empathic projections.
When Crusher arrived in their quarters, Mr. Homn had taken Veta for a walk around the station, and Odo retreated to the bedroom with Lwaxana.
After a quick examination, Crusher addressed both of them as Odo sat on the side of the bed, next to Lwaxana, holding onto her as she leaned against him.
"Odo—could I…ask you a few personal questions?" Crusher asked.
"Anything," Odo said, knowing that he meant it. She nodded her head gently as a show of thanks.
"When you—change your shape…can you become anything at all?" She asked.
"I have trouble imitating certain things," Odo said.
"And—if I asked you to become something," Crusher said, "how much familiarity would you need with the item in order to successfully become that? I guess—what I'm trying to ask is, can you become something with which you have no familiarity?"
"No," Odo said. "I must have at least some familiarity with an item. I have to have at least seen it in order to mimic it. And—the first time that I become something, or even the first few times, I don't often do a very good job of recreating what I'm attempting to mimic. It takes practice to do it well."
Crusher smiled. It wasn't an amused kind of smile, though. It was a genuinely pleased smile. She looked nearly excited.
Odo glanced at Lwaxana. He could tell from her expression that she wasn't reading Crusher. She'd put up her guard, essentially, to stop her own telepathic and empathic abilities in an attempt to keep from causing any more trouble for anyone to have to sort out. At the moment, she was purposefully choosing to blind herself from the thoughts and feelings of others.
Odo wondered, too, if part of her choosing to do so was because she was exhausted, and she was attempting to conserve whatever energy she could.
"Beverly—dear…" Lwaxana said. She broke off.
"I want you to look at this," Crusher said. She handed a PADD over to Lwaxana. "Look at this collection of images. Now—I didn't understand it at first, and neither did Dr. Bashir, but we talked about what we both noticed, and I studied them while he was dealing with the problems here, and I believe that I finally understand."
Lwaxana shook her head and sighed.
"Well, I don't understand a thing," she said. "What is this, Beverly? This doesn't look like anything…"
"They're your babies," Crusher said.
Lwaxana seemed to lighten a little. Odo thought he felt it, though she wasn't projecting her feelings outward at the moment, through purposeful control of the act, and that made Odo feel warm and a little tingly—he thought was proof that he could sense her feelings, as her imzadi.
"These are the babies?" Lwaxana asked. "Oh—Odo…"
Odo smiled at the change in her tone, and he looked at the images. He had no idea what he was looking at, but he looked, just the same.
"Look at these images," Crusher said, moving to sit on Lwaxana's other side so that she could point to the images. "These are what we would consider typical images. Everything here looks just like we would expect it to look for a Betazoid at this stage of development. You can see the attachment here."
"I do see it," Lwaxana confirmed. Odo didn't think it mattered if he could see it or not. He was more than willing to take the doctor's word for it, for all that it mattered.
"Here's what we've been seeing that looks abnormal. You can see, here, that the shape is different, and it appears that there's less of a substantial attachment, even though there is clearly still some attachment."
"They're detaching," Lwaxana said. "The poor little darlings…"
"That's what we thought," Crusher said. "However, we weren't taking into account that they're Changelings. In their DNA, they have the codes necessary to be Betazoid embryos and Changeling embryos. That's what they can appear as, then, because that's what they know—it's all they know. I wouldn't have realized it without the collection of my own scans and then Dr. Bashir's from today. You can see that their shape is inconsistent. Baby A changes, as does Baby B. They're actually moving between two states."
"They aren't detaching?" Lwaxana asked.
"It would appear that they aren't detaching at all," Crusher said. "They're both attached, and they both seem to be thriving. When they're in a Changeling state, however, it looks like there's something wrong—even though there isn't."
Lwaxana ran her fingers over the PADD screen.
"They aren't detaching?" She asked again.
"It appears that they're not detaching at all," Crusher said. "Baby A, that I originally thought was detaching, appears here as a Betazoid, but here they appear abnormal again…and once more as a normal, Betazoid embryo."
Lwaxana smiled. She laughed quietly in her throat.
"And Baby B…"
"Does the same thing," Crusher confirmed. "Here—here—and here."
"You're certain you're not confusing them?" Lwaxana asked.
"I questioned my own scans," Crusher said, "as did Dr. Bashir. However, having scans from both of us, I think it's pretty clear. Neither baby maintains either shape for very long. They're moving fluidly between the forms that are available to them—what they know."
Lwaxana looked at Odo and smiled.
"They take after their papa," Lwaxana said.
Odo felt an ache—strong like the one before, but entirely different.
"They are…well?" He asked.
Crusher smiled and nodded.
"I'm so relieved to be able to tell you that, it appears that they're both quite well at this time," she said. "And we have no reason to believe that will change."
"But Lwaxana has been unwell," Odo said.
Crusher shrugged and nodded.
"She's shown signs of morning sickness, which isn't unheard of in pregnancy," Crusher said with a laugh. "And it can be even worse with multiples. Headache is very common with Betazoid pregnancies, from what I've read, especially in the earliest stages when the baby is coming into consciousness and can have a variety of feelings that they don't understand. The baby can't control their empathic projections in any way, and it can be overwhelming for Betazoid mothers. I'm sure that's compounded with multiples. The exhaustion is to be expected. It's common of pregnancy, and both the babies are drawing nutrition from Lwaxana. As half-Betazoid, they do need nutrients to grow, and they're very active, as you can see. They'll take what they need from her, so she's putting out a lot of energy for two of them. She's allowed to be tired as an expectant mother of twins. And everything else…well…anger and sadness are common emotions with grieving, and Lwaxana has been experiencing anticipatory grief, as she's been concerned that you may lose one or both of the babies."
"Our little ones are…healthy?" Lwaxana asked. "Odo…"
"They both appear very healthy," Crusher said, clearly not bothered by Lwaxana's need to have things reaffirmed for her a few times.
"Oh—Odo…twins!" Lwaxana said after a moment. "Oh—how wonderful!"
Lwaxana clearly let her guard down, and Odo was practically knocked over by what felt like a wall of joy hitting him. He laughed, and Crusher laughed, too, unprepared for the wave of happiness that surely rushed through her as well.
Odo turned Lwaxana's face to him and he kissed her. Crusher didn't object.
"We're going to have twins, Odo!" Lwaxana said when the kiss broke.
"I heard, Lwaxana," Odo said with a laugh. "I heard."
"Are you happy?" She asked.
"Every bit as you are…and that's saying a great deal," Odo assured her. He looked at Crusher. "What about the station? Everyone affected…"
"Dr. Bashir and the medical teams are treating the symptoms," Crusher said. "There's really nothing else that can be done. Of course, I imagine that everyone is going to start feeling much better, very quickly."
Lwaxana was looking at the images on the PADD with tears in her eyes, but Odo knew they were different tears entirely than the ones that had dampened her eyes lately.
"I believe you're probably right," Odo said. "And nobody complains when the projections go the other way and the influence is a joyful one."
"Sometimes, we have to take the good with the bad," Crusher said.
"And sometimes we get things that are just wonderful," Lwaxana said. "Beverly—darling—could I have these?"
Crusher smiled at her.
"I brought those just for you," she said. "Now—if you don't need anything else, I'm going to help Dr. Bashir with any residual effects in the infirmary."
"Do tell him I'm so sorry," Lwaxana said.
"Don't worry about a thing," Crusher said. "And I mean that. Don't worry about anything at all. You're under strict doctor's orders to eat something nice, rest, and celebrate."
"Don't worry about that," Lwaxana said. "We'll celebrate twice—once for each of our precious little ones!"