Vic was still thinking about the talent show the next morning. It might be one of the weirdest ideas he had ever heard Julian suggest! Maybe he had the right idea though. He did need a rest and it would be great to see what other talent lined the station. True they needed acts to join up first. He got up from the couch where he had slept that night and made his way down to the bar. To his surprise someone was already waiting for him as he came down.

"Odo." Vic smiled seeing Odo, who once for a while wouldn't even step foot in the bar, sitting at one of the tables.

"Vic just thought I'd drop in." Odo smiled oddly.

It was weird seeing Odo on his own in the bar. Usually Julian, Myles or Kira would be with him. More likely these days Kira. He took the seat across from Odo to see what he wanted.

"Kira alright?" Vic sighed as he sat down.

"Yeah she's fine. I came about something else though. I thought you might help me with it." Odo looked hopeful.

"Sure pally whatever you need."

"I heard Julian and Myles talk about a talent show earlier. I don't know whether to enter it or not."

"Have you got talent?"

Vic saw Odo shift in his seat. This obviously wasn't the easiest conversation Vic was ever going to have. Even though most conversations with Odo were quite hard to have.

"I think so." Odo shrugged after an awful silence.

"You don't exactly fill me with confidence Odo!" Vic chuckled.

"A lot of people say that." Odo rolled his eyes.

"If you think you have a talent then I would suggest you do it. Maybe you'll surprise everyone and win."

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Julian and Myles were in the turbo lift on the way to the bridge of the station. They had told most of the station about the talent show and now hoped that some of the crew would also join in. They knew Sisco probably wouldn't join in, especially as he didn't like Vic very much these days.

"Do you think anyone will join?" Julian whispered to Myles a little worried.

"Now you're doubting the show!" Myles gasped.

"I'm not doubting it. I just worry what talent we might end up with if it's just Rom." Julian said feeling a little guilty.

"Rom's not that bad!"

"I know. I just think we might need more people to make it interesting."

Before the two could discuss it further, the turbo lift reached its destination. The lift pinged and the crew came into view. Julian took a deep breath in and then went about talking to the crew. He first went over to Nog who was looking through different engineering tasks Myles had sent him.

"Nog, are you busy?" Julian asked, hoping Nog would join.

"A little Julian. What is it?" Nog sighed, still looking down at the screens he was working on.

"Me and Myles were thinking of giving Vic a break…"

"Why is he sick?" Nog turned his head straight away.

"No. No he's fine. We just wanted to give him a break. We thought maybe some of us could help."

Nog looked over to where Myles was. He thought he was being wound up but could see the look on Julian's face which told him it was real. He folded his arms.

"What do we have to do?" Nog frowned.

"You don't have to. We just wondered if some of us would like to be in a talent show." Julian said in a higher pitch.

"Talent show?! Really?!" Nog smirked.

"Yeah. It would bring us all together and maybe help Vic along the way find a new act if he needs one." Julian tried to get Nog to join.

Nog chewed this over for a few seconds.

"Okay. As long as I'm not the only one doing this." Nog pointed his finger at Julian.

Julian felt like skipping but decided against it. He then went over to join Myles to ask Kira. She might be a bit harder to ask. Hopefully Ezri might be with her so they could ask her as well.

"Kira…" Myles went in cautiously.

"No." Kira just said before he had even said anything.

"I haven't even said anything yet!" Myles looked to Julian and Ezri for support.

"You're going to ask me to do the talent show. Odo told me and I'm not joining." Kira shook her head.

"Oh come on Kira! Odo might be joining." Ezri nudged her in the arm.

"Are you going to?" Kira raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah why not. Sounds like fun." Ezri smiled at Myles and Julian.

Kira looked back at the man who had asked her. She knew she might not want to but it did sound like fun and if Ezri and Odo were doing it, she couldn't leave them to do it all by themselves. She nodded without having to say yes in words.

"Thank you." Julian nearly shouted.

"Okay calm down. It's not like we won the war." Kira tried to calm Julian down.

Julian looked around the room and said sorry to the crew who were working there. Julian and Myles said thank you to the two girls and then left to ask the rest of the crew.

"We're going to embarrass ourselves so much!" Kira made sure Ezri knew that.

"Yes but it will be fun. Plus I owe Vic so that's another reason to do it." Ezri smiled.

"I owe Vic a lot but I'm still worried about this!" Kira moaned.

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"Are you sure? I mean I could be rubbish for all you know." Odo continued his conversation with Vic.

"I'm sure that's not true." Vic punched Odo in the arm.

"What about the rest of the station? What if they don't like my act?" Odo shrugged again.

"I don't think they're going to say that. Well not to your face anyway." Vic said, trying to give Odo some confidence.

Odo looked Vic in the eye. Vic usually gave out the best advice and by the looks of it this situation was one of those times. He nodded and then headed for the door.

"One more thing." Vic stopped him.

"Yes."

"Make sure other people are joining. I don't want this to go down the drain for Julian and Myles." Vic ran his hand through his hair.

"Course." Odo nodded and then left through the holosuite door.

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Rom and Quark were seeing to the bar when Odo headed out of the holosuite door. Rom smiled at him but Quark didn't even look up from his work. No surprise there then! Odo went over to Rom trying to keep out of Quark's way.

"Gone to see Vic?" Rom asked as Odo came over.

"Yeah I needed some advice and I got some which was good." Odo sighed leaning on the table nearest.

"About the talent show?" Rom asked excitedly.

"Might have been. Why? Are you thinking about entering?"

"Quark won't let me." Rom pointed his head over to where his brother was working.

"Does that matter?" Odo asked surprised

"He won't let me out of the bar." Rom shook his head.

"Maybe you should ask Vic about it. I'm sure Quark might listen to you then." Odo suggested.

Rom looked back at his brother one more time. Maybe Odo was right. Quark knew how much business Vic brought and would be unhappy if Vic ever wanted to argue with him.

"Thanks Odo. I'll look into it." Rom nodded as Odo walked away to get back to duty.

"What did Odo want?" Quark asked once Odo was gone, shouting across the bar.

"He just wanted to see how I was doing. I might go and see Vic later if that's okay?" Rom asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Fine. Don't be long." Quark rolled his eyes.

Rom really wanted to smile but knew Quark wouldn't appreciate it so didn't in the end. At least he was actually allowing him to go and see Vic. Most of the time, Quark wouldn't even let him do that! He then saw Admiral Ross head across the promenade to Sisco's office. He knew the admiral normally didn't mean good news.

"I wonder what he wants." Rom muttered.

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Sisco was in his office looking over different numbers and figures from different places along the warzone. They weren't the best he had seen but they weren't the worst either. At least that was a good thing. He then heard the door of his office ping.

"Come in." Sisco said, putting down the statistics in his hand.

The doors opened with Admiral Ross on the other side. Sisco went to stand up but Ross waved him to stay where he was. Sisco did so and sat back down again.

"Admiral Ross."

"Ben. I'm afraid I've got some bad news." Ross explained.

"What is it this time?"