Author's Note

Everything that appears in asterisk is meant to be stressed for emphasis. Things that appear in is a thought of the character.

Now, on with the show.

Kira opened her eyes. She was still lying on the floor. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and put a hand to her head. After her bout of drinking and weeping, she had expected it to try and fall off as she sat up but to her surprise, she felt amazingly clear-headed.

 She looked around her quarters. It was still dark but she had the uncanny feeling that she wasn't still alone.

She scanned her eyes over the large common room carefully. There. Over at her computer terminal. Although it was too dark to see clearly, Kira could just make out the faint outline of a humanoid shape in the desk chair. Slowly and as unobtrusively as possible, she gathered her feet under her and prepared to fight if necessary.

"It's alright, you know. I'm not going to do anything."

Kira shook her head. She must still be suffering from the brandy. The voice she thought she had heard couldn't possibly be right.

"Oh, but it is. I assure you, I am definitely who you think I am."

Kira stared helplessly at the figure behind her desk as it stood and moved around in front of the viewing portal, letting the starlight pour over her features. It was Ziyal.

Kira shook her head and stood, backing away.

"No, this isn't real. You're dead!"

"Oh, come on, Nerys! You're Bajoran, you should know that spirits exist!"

Kira stopped at that. She, whoever she was, had a point. In Bajoran custom, spirits did exist and even sometimes spoke to the living before they made their transition to the Celestial Temple. She supposed it was entirely reasonable for Ziyal to be a spirit. She was, after all, half Bajoran.

Kira straightened her stance and looked at the young woman (spirit?) in front of her.

"Ziyal?" she said hesitantly.

The spirit broke into a wide grin and stepped closer.

"Yes." she reached out a hand to Nerys and gestured for her to sit on the couch.

Suddenly, Ziyal started laughing.

"Please, Kira, sit down before you fall down," with a mischievous gleam in her eyes she continued, "Why, honestly, you look as though you've seen a ghost!"

Kira grinned wryly at the awful joke. That definitely sounded like Ziyal. She had always had her father's warped sense of humor.

She edged her way back to the couch and sat cautiously on one end. Ziyal then casually sat herself on the other. They sat there for a moment before Kira could no longer stand it and blurted out the question uppermost in her mind, "What are you doing here?"

Ziyal's pleasant expression turned very solemn at her question.

"I'm here for you...and for my father."

"Why? I mean, don't take this wrong but, you're dead, aren't you supposed to be past all...this?" Kira gestured significantly around her.

"Just because I've left the living realm, you think I no longer care what happens in it? That I no longer care about you or my father or my friends?"

"Has anyone else seen you?"

Ziyal looked down at her hands, folded in her lap.

"No. Father," she sighed and closed her eyes, "Father would not be able to hear or see me at the moment and, even if he could, I hardly think it would be in his best interest to hear from me right now. As for Garak," she smiled sadly, "He knows how to deal with his grief."

Kira looked confused, "So then, why come to me? I mean, granted, neither of them are what I would consider 'spiritually in tune' by any stretch of the imagination, but I would think that your father, at least, would very much like to see you, especially now."

Ziyal looked at her, "Kira, my father is dangerously on the edge of insanity right now. I don't intend to do anything that would make it any worse."

Kira sighed and rolled her eyes, "Look, Ziyal, I know you love your father but he is not exactly beyond faking insanity to try and escape. This is probably only part of his plan to..."

Ziyal broke in angrily, "No, you look! I know you have your reasons for hating the Cardassians but for you to place all the blame and all your hatred onto my father is completely unfair!

Kira was stunned. Ziyal had never spoken like that before. She answered cautiously, "I don't place all my hatred onto your father. Believe me, I have enough for all Cardassians."

"Oh, is that so? Then I suppose you hate me as well?"

"You know that's not true and anyway, you're half Bajoran. And that's beside the point."

"Oh, is it? You have always claimed that you hate all Cardassians but what about Tekeny and Marrizta?" At Kira's shocked looked, she smirked and continued. "Oh, yes, I know about them now too. Why is it OK for you to forgive them and yet continue to hold such a grudge against my father? You say that my father has never done anything good or worthwhile in his life so what does that make ME, Kira? I know very well that he has done some awful things in his life, I'm not excusing that, all I'm saying is that trying to make him out to be the Bajoran equivalent of the devil is unfair. He's just a man, Nerys. And right now, he's a man with a lot of regrets and pain to deal with."

Kira looked belligerent.

"I'm sorry, Ziyal, but his pain and regrets are not my problem."

Ziyal looked exasperated, "Dammit, Kira, Why can't you give him some slack? I know that you care about him."

"Me? Care about Dukat? Has death deluded your senses? You know perfectly well how much I care for your father!"

Ziyal looked suddenly amused, "As a matter of fact, yes, I DO know how much you care for my father and that is partly why I'm here," her face suddenly lost its animation as she solemnly stated, "You're the only one who can bring him back, Nerys."

Kira slanted her a suspicious look, "What are you talking about?"

"First, let me ask you a question. Did it not occur to you to wonder how I knew the answers to the questions you asked when you first saw me?"

"What questions?"

"Is this person about to attack me? And, 'It can't possibly be Ziyal, can it?' Those are the questions I'm referring to."

"But I didn't ask..." Kira stopped mid- sentence as she realized she had asked those questions...in her mind.

She paled and whispered hoarsely, "How did you know?"

Ziyal smirked, looking for a moment the very image of her father, "Oh, did I forget to mention? One of the admittedly few perks to being deceased is telepathy."

Kira still appeared shocked, "So you can read everything in my mind?"

"Well," Ziyal admitted, "not everything, but most of it. It's how I found out and why I came."

"Found out what?"

"How you really feel about my father."