AN: This is another little one shot, because I have problems, obviously, and am a little obsessed. At any rate, it can be read separately, but it is enhanced when read with the others.

I give a trigger warning for this one for discussion of pregnancy loss. It's not terribly detailed, but I like to make people aware.

I own nothing from Star Trek.

I do hope you enjoy! If you do, please don't forget to let me know! I love sharing with you!

111

When Odo felt sufficiently strong enough to hold his shape, he eased out of his bucket, not bothering to take much more than the barely-there shape required to move his form across the floor. His beloved wife, Lwaxana Troi, had not woken yet. The last time she'd been awake with their son, Veta, was the middle of the night, while Odo had been still unable to leave his bucket.

Odo often felt bad that he couldn't help Lwaxana during the times when he couldn't leave his bucket. He worried that something would happen. He worried that something horrible might happen, especially, during those moments when he couldn't even hold his shape well enough to leave the bucket and get help. He would be of no use to Lwaxana.

When he'd told her his concerns, though, she'd simply called him silly and embraced him, promising him that she was quite capable of caring for herself and that Mr. Homn, though he didn't share their quarters, could easily be roused if she called out for him—his own quarters sharing a wall with theirs. Odo hadn't believed her, but she'd quickly beckoned the servant with a yell, proving to Odo that they either had some sort of connection, or Mr. Homn was particularly attuned to Lwaxana's voice—even through walls.

During the late hours when Veta required nursing or some other care, Lwaxana would often come and sit by Odo's bucket—they always tried to keep a chair close-by, just for her, and she would tend to Veta and talk to Odo so that he could hear her, always feeling like he could somehow absorb the energy that she put out for him.

Lwaxana's energy—at least that which she shared with Odo—was almost always positive. He craved it, now that they'd been married for somewhere around nine months, like he heard other beings say they craved water or food. Odo imagined he could go longer without puddling and resting than he could without at least hearing Lwaxana's voice.

Odo hadn't always felt that way about his wife. There had once been a time when he'd thought she was annoying—perhaps the most annoying creature in all of the galaxies. Now, though, he truly knew her, just as she truly knew him, and he would not want to know existence without her.

She was his beloved. He loved her entirely—everything about her he found, in its own way, loveable. She loved him, too, entirely, in a way that he had never imagined he could ever be loved.

Together, they were raising a son, and though he wasn't Odo's biological child, Odo loved him as though he were. He was coming to love his entire extended family through Lwaxana—including his quite grown step-daughter, Deanna. Odo and Lwaxana, too, hoped to one day grow their family a bit more—perhaps sooner, rather than later.

In the mornings, when Odo was able to maintain his shape, but not yet ready to wake entirely, and when Lwaxana was often still sleeping for as long as she could before Veta or someone else required her attention, one of Odo's most favorite things to do was to leave his bucket and make his way to the bed where Lwaxana slept. Lwaxana loved Odo for who he was—for everything he was—and she was never repulsed by him in any way. She loved him in all his forms. He could puddle in the bed beside her, resting without the need to take any particular form, and shape himself to fit perfectly against her. He'd remain there, resting, while she slept—enjoying the perfect peace that he drew from being near her.

This morning, as Odo found Lwaxana's body in the bed and shaped himself to her, he immediately sensed that things weren't as they should be. He didn't feel the same peace from her that he always felt. She wasn't resting—at least not in the way that she should be.

Immediately jarred into wakefulness, Odo slipped into the form that she knew best. She stirred and rolled, facing him.

"Odo…" she said.

"You are not well, Lwaxana," Odo said.

"Oh—I'm fine," she said.

"I can sense that you're not well," Odo said.

She smiled at him. He didn't believe it. Her eyes were dark in a way that went beyond their normal blackness.

"You're not an empath, Odo," she teased.

"I beg your pardon, Lwaxana, but you don't quite know what I am," Odo said. "Nobody does. Not even me. What I do know, is that I can sense how you feel—empath or not. And, right now, I'm sensing that you are not well. What can I do to help you? What's wrong?"

"Odo—don't make a fuss over me," Lwaxana said. "I'm just—not feeling well, that's all."

"In what way?" Odo asked. He ran his hands over her. She could say he wasn't an empath—and maybe he wasn't, because he'd certainly never felt the absolute connection with anyone else that he felt with her—but he could feel her discomfort. It was a stark contrast to the absolutely positive energy he was used to sensing. "Tell me what's wrong, Lwaxana."

Lwaxana sat up in the bed. The nightgown she wore was half off, as though she'd either forgotten to fasten it after the last time Veta fed, or else she'd slept roughly enough that it had barely stayed on.

"I'm fine, Odo," she assured him. "I just—have a headache. I didn't sleep well. And…I don't feel well…"

She moved toward the side of the bed and Odo supported her as he moved with her. Once she was sitting with her feet over the side of the bed, she cradled her head in her hand.

"I'll bring you some water," Odo said. Without waiting for her to protest in any way, he slipped out of the bedroom, requested water and tea from the replicator—determined to get her to take either she might be willing to swallow—and he put in a quick call to both Deanna and Doctor Crusher.

They were aboard the Enterprise temporarily. Five days ago, Lwaxana had undergone a procedure to transfer two embryos created from their combined DNA into her uterus. It was their first attempt to create offspring together. Doctor Crusher would be Lwaxana's primary medical doctor during the entirety of the undertaking—a bit unknown to all of them, since nobody knew of anyone who had ever carried a half-Betazoid and half-Changeling—and Lwaxana would be able to enjoy some time with her daughter when they were aboard the ship on various visits.

Odo took the water and tea back into the bedroom. Lwaxana was still in the same position, cradling her head. Odo placed both the tea and water on the bedside table and knelt down to catch her face in his hands and look up at her.

"Please, Beloved, tell me what's wrong."

Lwaxana laughed quietly.

"I think I'm—pregnant, Odo," she said. "I feel—unwell—but my mind has been overly busy all night. It's—overwhelming."

"Can you sense the babies?" Odo asked, afraid to let himself feel the excitement that was starting to buzz within him.

"I can sense something," Lwaxana said.

"Something positive?" Odo asked.

"Oh—I don't know," Lwaxana said, pressing her fingers into her temples. "I don't know—I've never felt anything quite like this before. Not even with my other pregnancies. It's so faint, but…it's so strong, too."

She looked at him, and he wouldn't have dared to try to explain the look that came over her face, even though he was quite accustomed to seeing her various expressions. He didn't have to try too hard. She filled in the missing information for him.

"Odo—I'm going to be sick…"

Odo didn't need explanation for what she meant. He realized that he would never get her to the bathroom in time, but there was a trash can beside the bed that she emptied daily into the recycler. He thrust that into her lap and she asked him to leave her alone, telling him that she didn't want him to see her in her current condition.

Odo laughed at her, and he sat beside her on the bed.

"If you can sit with me while I'm in my bucket," Odo offered, "then I can certainly comfort you while you have your head in one."

Lwaxana eyed him.

"This is rather unbecoming, Odo," she responded.

Odo simply laughed at her.

"Perhaps I should call Doctor Crusher and tell her not to rush—we may know the reason for your ill-health."

"Doctor Crusher?" Lwaxana asked with a start.

"I called her, Beloved," Odo said. "She and Deanna are on their way."

"Odo—you have to call them back," Lwaxana said. Odo ignored her and went for damp cloths in the bathroom so that he could offer her one for her neck and another for wiping her mouth, sure that she would want it. "They can't see me like this—I'm not dressed and ready for company."

"You're unwell," Odo said. "Doctor Crusher is your doctor. Deanna is your daughter."

"Surely, you have to understand that…there are ways we don't want to be seen," Lwaxana said. "Sick with my head in the trash is not becoming of a Daughter of the Fifth House."

"But it is to be expected of an expectant mother," Odo said. "Whether or not the children she is carrying run the risk of being unpredictable."

Lwaxana winced and touched her head, still not relinquishing the trash can in case another round of nausea might come upon her.

"Odo…" she said.

Odo sensed her embarrassment. He softened.

"Don't worry, Wife," Odo said. "I will get your wig. We'll make you as ready for public as we possibly can. You just relax."

111

"The quick-analysis tests only take a moment to check the blood for pregnancy-related hormones," Crusher said. "At this point it's more reliable than a tricorder, really. It may be too early for any detection, though. Just a small pinch…"

When she'd collected the sample and set the small test to do what it needed to do, she started going through her medical kit for a tricorder or whatever else she might need.

Odo had moved out of the way when the two women arrived at nearly the same moment. Deanna had taken a seat next to her mother, and she was hugging her from the side, rubbing her back and doing her best to soothe her mother.

"There is pain," Deanna said, handling her own kind of diagnosis.

"My head," Lwaxana supplied.

"I can give you something for a headache," Crusher assured her.

"It's more than that," Deanna said quickly. "It's—something much more than that. It's faint, but…"

"Strong," Lwaxana said. "I haven't experienced this before."

Deanna touched her own temple and winced.

"Please—make it stop…" she said. "Mother—I'm sorry…" she added immediately.

"Put your guard up, Little One," Lwaxana said. "This isn't for you…and I can't stand your pain and tolerate whatever this is…"

Crusher pressed a hypospray to Lwaxana's neck. Almost immediately, mother and daughter showed signs of relief.

"It's an analgesic," Crusher said. "A relatively strong one for the time being, until I know what we're dealing with. And something for the nausea, mixed with it."

"Oh—what about the babies?" Lwaxana asked.

"A dose of an analgesic will irritate them far less than your blood pressure rising over compounding discomfort," Crusher said. "Once we know what we're dealing with, we'll adjust your treatment. For now…"

She scanned Lwaxana with the tricorder. She studied the reading with a furrowed brow. Lwaxana pressed for information. Odo echoed it, and so did Deanna, until Odo could imagine that Crusher was tired of hearing all of them. Crusher reached for the test she'd put to the side, half-smiled at it, and offered it to Lwaxana.

"It appears that your self-diagnosis is correct," Crusher said. "That's not something that I can say to all my patients."

Lwaxana took the test and looked at it. Immediately, she looked better. Odo thought that the color came back to her cheeks, and he could feel the happiness from across the distance. In the other room, Odo heard the sound of Veta fussing, but his fussing didn't last long. Mr. Homn was there, and he would care for the little boy until his mother was available.

"I knew I could sense them," Lwaxana said. "It's been faint, but…last night…I think I fully started to connect with them. I don't understand the headache, though. It's unlike anything I've experienced before."

Crusher scanned her again.

"I can't pretend to understand Betazoid physiology entirely," Crusher said. "I do know that mothers and their offspring have a very particular kind of empathic connection, though it's not telepathic…"

"No—it's very bad for a Betazoid child to develop their telepathic abilities too young," Lwaxana said. "Oh—you don't think that's what's happening, do you?"

"Not at all," Crusher said. "Your baby's brain isn't even developed enough for that, at this point. Of course, things are possibly going to be a bit unusual in this pregnancy. Normally, I might not even be able to detect your pregnancy with a tricorder yet, but I'm getting some strong readings—all things considered. It's possible that some of your discomfort is that you're connecting with the baby in a way that you're not accustomed to connecting. Your baby is, after all, half-Betazoid and half-Changeling."

"That might explain the—the chaotic busyness in my mind," Lwaxana said with a laugh. "But—the pain…"

Crusher frowned. She scanned Lwaxana once more, as though she were either watching a progression of things or didn't want to accept what she saw on the tricorder.

"I'm sorry," she said. "It appears that—one of them appears to be in a process of detachment. It's unlike some of the things that we see in…in…recorded pregnancies, but not entirely."

Lwaxana frowned deeply, and Deanna did, too. Deanna's eyes showed tears before Lwaxana's did, and Deanna leaned her head against her mother's shoulder. Doctor Crusher's eyes glimmered with tears, too, and when Odo was hit with what felt like a wall of sadness, he realized that Lwaxana wasn't regulating how much emotion she put out into the atmosphere around her.

"What does it mean?" Odo asked.

Lwaxana's frown looked impossible for her to control. She reached her arms toward him much like Veta did when he was feeling in need of a hug or to be picked up, and Odo came to her. Crusher moved out of the way, allowing them room. Odo wrapped himself around Lwaxana, accepting her hard embrace. She rubbed her face against him.

"It means our baby is dying," she said. "They may already be dead. And the pain is…sadness…because the other one knows…Odo. It knows…I can feel it."

Odo closed his eyes. He wished for a moment of privacy so that he could form himself around her to hold her completely. That would come later, when they were left alone.

"It's OK, my beloved," Odo assured her. "We knew that—this was a possibility. A likelihood, Lwaxana. It is nothing you've done wrong. It's nothing that…that you've failed to do."

"Not at all," Crusher said. Her voice cracked with emotion. It was impossible to know if the emotion was her own or simply one that she couldn't help absorbing from Lwaxana. As a mature Betazoid—which Odo had once believed to mean that Lwaxana was older, but now he was realizing that Betazoids often used the terminology to mean that her mental abilities were fully-matured—Lwaxana had the ability to project her emotions. She could control it, too, at least to some degree, but sometimes it got away from her. "This is just something that happens, especially with procedures like this. The good news is that the life signs for your other baby are quite strong. There's no reason to believe that the pregnancy won't continue."

"What will happen to the…what will happen?" Lwaxana asked, pulling out of the embrace with Odo. He offered her tissue from the bedside table.

"It's possible it will be absorbed," Crusher said, seeming to understand. Her emotion started to dry up a little as Lwaxana's did. Deanna's eyes didn't dry as quickly, but her connection to her mother was quite profound. "There may be a little blood…if it passes. You shouldn't be alarmed unless you feel that something's not right. If you feel at all uneasy, though, you should let me know. You'll never be a bother to me—and I'll be happy to offer you peace of mind about what's happening."

Lwaxana laughed quietly.

"Peace of mind," she mused. "I do feel that, strangely enough. Just knowing what it is…I feel a bit more at peace." Lwaxana looked at Crusher. "You're sure there's nothing I could have done? Nothing I did?"

Crusher gave her a reassuring hint of a smile and shook her head.

"This wasn't something you did, and it wasn't something you failed to do. You are, in no way, responsible. I'm very sorry," Crusher said. "It's just—one of those things that happens. At the risk of sounding trite, let's try to focus on the positive."

"The positive," Lwaxana said, smiling. Odo wiped the last of her tears with a tissue, and she touched his face affectionately. "There is one strong baby." Lwaxana said the words directly to Odo. "We're having a baby, Odo."

Odo pressed his hand to her belly. Her body was warm beneath the nightgown that she'd been willing to wear once Odo had helped her put on her hair and feel somewhat put together for Crusher and Deanna's visit. There was no hint of their little one there, yet. There couldn't possibly be, but Odo liked knowing it was there, somewhere inside of Lwaxana.

"We'll focus on the positive, Lwaxana," Odo said. "We have a baby—and we'll take good care of it. The best care, Beloved. We'll stay here another week or two. We can both work from here. And Doctor Crusher will help us to be sure that you and our baby are healthy and strong."

Odo straightened himself up to his form's full height when he was sure that Lwaxana didn't need him to be immediately present in front of her. Crusher stepped in and scanned her again.

"You're healthy, Lwaxana. The nausea is normal, really, and I'll be glad to prescribe you something for it. You can replicate a hypospray for it whenever you need it—I'll let Doctor Bashir know, as well, as part of your file. If the headache continues…"

"I think the headache will be much better now," Lwaxana said quickly. "I know what it is now. And when—this part has passed—I think that it will be much more peaceful. The coming into consciousness is always difficult for a Betazoid baby. Deanna kept me awake for an entire week just worrying…"

"You always say that, Mother," Deanna said, laughing quietly despite the tears that were still dampening her face. She snuggled against her mother and Lwaxana cuddled her back, obviously thankful for the affection of her oldest living child.

"You were a difficult little one from the very start," Lwaxana teased. "But oh how I've loved you since the first moment I felt you. I wouldn't trade even a second of it." She shrugged her shoulders. "Well—we'll focus on the positive—and, even now, I'm thankful to understand what I'm feeling. I'm thankful to know that I can focus on offering as much peace and positivity to my little one as I can, while they come to terms with consciousness and…and their experience." She looked back at Crusher. "You're certain that the other is well?"

"I am certain that all appears well," Crusher said. "All the readings are showing really quite strong, especially for this point in pregnancy. I'm as sure as I can be that all is well."

"Well—that has to be good enough," Lwaxana said.

"What should we do, Doctor?" Odo asked.

"Exactly what you feel like doing," Crusher said. "There's no wrong answer here. I think, if you feel like mourning, then you should. And—you should celebrate, too, as much as you feel like celebrating. I'll be on hand for any reassurance that you may need in the next few days, and I'll contact the Federation with the medical recommendation that you both be stationed here a while longer, and that your work be light and only what you can perform here." She looked at Lwaxana. "You should rest as much as you feel able to rest, but know that nothing you do—within reason, of course—will cause any harm to your baby."

Lwaxana smiled at Crusher.

"Thank you, Beverly," she said. "I'll be sure to put my training as a Klingon warrior on hold for a few weeks, and schedule an afternoon of taking Veta on a picnic on the holodeck, instead."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Crusher said, realizing immediately that Lwaxana was teasing a little to lighten the moods of those around her. "I'm sorry—and congratulations."

"Thank you on both counts, Beverly," Lwaxana said sincerely. "Odo?"

There was nothing else that she needed to say. Odo nodded at her.

"I'll see everyone out," he said. "You rest—and then, perhaps, we'll see about that picnic. Veta does love the program with the butterflies."

Lwaxana smiled, likely thinking about the last trip to the holodeck where they'd taken Veta to see the butterflies. He'd been so enamored with them that he'd laughed and enjoyed them to the point that Lwaxana and Odo had kept him there until he'd fallen asleep, unwilling to tear him away from such a simple source of absolute joy.

Lwaxana nodded her head. Deanna and Crusher had already taken their leave, slipping out of the bedroom and recognizing that Odo and Lwaxana needed some time—there would be plenty of time for congratulations later, since Odo was sure they were going to focus on that.

"Hurry back?" Lwaxana asked, calling Odo back before he slipped out of the bedroom after them.

"I wouldn't be away from you even a moment longer than necessary," he assured her.

"Bring Veta?" She asked, drawing him back again. He could sense her reluctance to be without him. He nodded.

"He's probably hungry," Odo said. "Mr. Homn will have given him his breakfast, but you know how he feels about morning milk."

Lwaxana smiled. It was not entirely sincere.

"Odo—I'm sorry," she said.

"Never be sorry," Odo said. "Look at all we have to gain, Lwaxana—all you are giving me, as though you haven't given me enough. We're focusing on the positive, Beloved."

She smiled at him.

"The positive," she confirmed. "But—I do still hope you will hurry back."

"I believe our guests have already left without me," Odo admitted. "I will only relieve Mr. Homn, and then Veta and I will be back before you've had time to miss us."

Lwaxana laughed. Her laugh was musical to Odo, and he vibrated with happiness to hear it, thankful that it pushed away some of the residual ache he felt.

"Too late, Husband," Lwaxana teased.

Odo smiled to himself, recognizing what she was saying. He often told her he missed her, even while she was there, in anticipation of when she might not be—if only for a moment.

"We only miss what we love," Odo offered, echoing back something she commonly said to him. "And I do love you, Lwaxana." With that, Odo accepted her sincere smile and slipped out of the room to be sure that Crusher and Deanna were gone, and to relieve Mr. Homn of his duty of caring for their son. He wouldn't make Lwaxana wait for him even a moment longer than necessary. He wanted, always, to bring her as much peace as she gave him.