Author's note: The sections in Italics are flashbacks.

6

Ro slammed open the door to the Infirmary and marched in.

"Laren, is someone injured?" Finch stepped out of his small office and stopped in front of Ro.

Ro glared at the man who had blocked her from her mother.

"Laren?"

"No, nothing is wrong doctor. I just wanted to speak to Talia."

Finch looked over his shoulder, "She's sleeping right now."

"Fine, but I'd like to check on her anyways."

He nodded and went back into his office, "Call me if you need any help."

Ro absently nodded as she walked forward.

The woman lying in the bed seemed so frail, so weak.

Not like the mother that Ro remembered.

Quietly she sat down in a chair besides Talia and gripped one of her hands, "Hey mom, I know I acted like a real idiot today and I know that was wrong of me."

Unbidden, images from her childhood flashed before her face.

"Mama, Papa!" the little brown haired girl ran into the small house where she lived with her parents.

"What is it Laren?" Her mother looked down at her.

She was only six and she couldn't understand what was going on around her, "Those guys with the funny faces just beamed into the square and they're walking around."

Both her parents exchanged glances and her father picked her up, "Have I ever taught you to make hasperats?"

Ro blinked as the memory faded, "I never got a chance to thank you and dad for everything you did for me."

She took a breath and studied the woman in front of her for a moment.

"I'm also sad to say that you wouldn't be very proud of me. Ever since I ran away from home…" Ro trailed off, not completing the sentence as another painful memory surfaced.

"Laren, where are you going?"

"I'm leaving home, I can't stand it anymore."

"You can't stand what?"

"Everything! Especially having to learn about the Prophets and all that religious stuff!"

Talia's kind eyes went dark as she listened to her seven year old daughter, "Don't say things like that! How can you deny a part of your culture?"

"Your culture, not mine!"

"What do you mean? You are Bajoren."

"I hate it! I hate my culture, I hate this stupid earring and I hate being Bajoren!" Ro yelled.

Talia knelt in front of Ro and wiped at the tears leaking from her child's eyes, "Ro, I know what happened to your father hurt you terribly, beyond anything that I could possibly imagine but together we can survive this and together we'll be stronger."

"You never loved him."

"What?"

"You never loved Papa and you don't love me. You never loved either of us because we were never perfect! And you don't even mind that Papa's gone." Ro couldn't stop the sobs, they boiled up and spilled over.

Offering whatever comfort she could, Talia tried to stop her child's sobs but it soon become obvious that she was helpless.

"We should go to bed. Everything will look better in the morning Laren, I promise."

Late that same night, Ro crept out of her bed.

Lightly stepping on the floor, she found her clothes and put them on in the dark before walking over to the window.

She quickly worked the catch and prepared to slip outside with something by her head jangled.

Touching her right earlobe, she gently felt the curves of the earring.

Suddenly she pulled it off and left it in a pile on her dresser.

It would be many years until she wore an earring again.

This time Ro couldn't contain the tears that fell out of her eyes. "I shouldn't have run away, I see that now."

She wiped her cheeks as she continued, "As I get older I'm beginning to see a lot that I regret."

Her transmitter suddenly beeped and she stared at it dumbly before activating it, "Yes?"

"Ro, are you there?"

She recognized Brown's voice, low though it was, "Yeah, is everything all right?"

"Not sure. We need to talk. Can you make it to the roof without being followed?"

When she said she could, Brown gave further instructions, "Go up there know. I'll be there, waiting. Brown out."

Ro turned off her transmitter and faced her mother, "Good bye and maybe someday I'll have the guts to tell you I'm sorry when you're awake."

Wiping a hand across her eyes one last time, she exited the room, softy closing the door behind her.