Kang was starting to talk, and this pleased Jadzia immensely. She had been cleaning up breakfast, chastising Kang for spilling his second glass of blood, when he spoke up.
"Mom," he said in a quiet voice. She turned around in astonishment.
"Did you just say 'Mom'?" she asked, but he stayed silent.
"Well, good Kang, saying a word," she said, kissing him on the forehead. He made a face and pulled away.
Picking him up to take to Sirella's, she wondered when he had got so old. So big. When he had started sitting calmly in her arms and not trying to break free.
"He said 'Mom' this morning!" Jadzia declared triumphantly as she gave Kang to Sirella. Sirella gave her a look of disbelief, but soon Kang was saying 'Dad' and 'Auntie', and then 'blood' and then every type of food at the table. He started learning words so quickly that Jadzia joked that he must have a dictionary stashed in his crib somewhere.
For the first time, Dax looked forward to getting home after work. She liked seeing how much Kang had progressed during the day, and he sounded so excited every time he yelled 'Mom' when she walked through the door.
She started taking him around the station more often, partly to get out to new places, but mostly to show off how much better he was behaving. Sure, he still acted out, but it was more Klingon way. Once, he had thrown his plate at the waiter at the Bajoran restaurant because his food was cold. Jadzia scolded him, but she was reminded of another Kang she had known a long time ago.
One day, the voice she dreaded came over the Comm system.
"Sisko to Dax. I just got word that mission delta-53 is going ahead. Please man your station."
Her position was commanding the Defiant. She wanted to go and say goodbye to Kang, but she knew she didn't have time. Instead, she paged Sirella over the Comm system.
"Worf just called to say he would be going too," she said, "So I guess I'll have Kang for awhile."
"Tell him I'll miss him," she replied and ran off to the Defiant. She suspected Sirella wouldn't tell him anything.
They quickly got moving. The Dominion had just started an attack on the Breen. The allied forces were moving in to destroy their shipbuilding facilities while they were gone.
It was a long and boring trip. Jadzia spent most of her time sitting in the captain's chair and staring into space, wondering how Kang was doing. She missed him so much it was almost unbearable. She talked to Sirella over subspace sometimes, and tried to get her to send videos, but she didn't seem to quite understand.
"What should I send videos of?" she asked, "Kang never does anything but play."
Anything, really Jadzia wanted to scream.
Eventually, Sirella sent a video of Kang painting a picture of a space ship and explaining it. It was funny because he really didn't understand spaceships at all. He seemed to have grown over the two weeks since she'd seen him. She watched it every day before she went to bed.
Dr. Bashir was in about as good a mood as she was.
"You don't seem to be enjoying this mission," she said to him as she walked into his quarters, hoping to get back on speaking terms. He was sitting on the side of his bunk reading a magazine dejectedly. She sat next to him.
"You don't seem your usual chipper self either," he replied, not looking up.
"I miss Kang," she said.
"I miss having a life," he moaned.
"Of course you have a life," she contradicted.
"Not since Emily died," he spat bitterly, "Since then, it's been sixteen hour shifts. Can't nip off to get a drink or play a game of racketball, someone might die."
"Emily?" Jadzia asked.
"Dr. O'Malley."
"Did you know her?"
"A bit. She was so shy she was hard to talk to, but I thought given enough time there might eventually be something."
Dr. Bashir leaned back an looked up at the ceiling,
"I took her to walk in the autumn leaves in the holosuite, just as friends, and Igot her talking, and then .."
He motioned firing a phasor, and then a body falling with his hands. Jadzia was lost for words.
"I'm sorry," she said finally.
"These things happen" he replied with a touch of sarcasm.
"And Starfleet won't replace her," he continued, "They say they're shorthanded, and of course I'm not one of the important people, with a family."
"I'm sure it's just an oversight," Dax murmured.
"I'm sick of it," he whispered, "I'm sick of being important enough to have to save everyone, but not important enough for anyone to care about me."
"It'll be okay," Dax replied automatically.
"Do you really mean that?" he asked softly.
"No, not really."
She wasn't sure how it happened, but suddenly, the two of them were laughing hysterically. It was several minutes until they stopped.
"How's that baby growing?" Dr. Bashir asked finally, suddenly sounding friendly.
"I hate to talk shop," she said slowly, "But my back's been hurting and he hasn't been moving so much."
"I can take a look tomorrow," the doctor responded, "here, I have plenty of time on my hands, I'm just stuck on a ship."
*****
Jadzia left soon after, and was in a much better mood. Somehow, finding a partner in misery made her feel better. As she walked to her quarters, she felt the ship shake.
"Captain, you better come up here," Chief O'Brian's voice rang over the Comm system. She ran up the stairs to the bridge.
"Attack formation delta," she heard Chief O'Brien say as she walked through the door. She looked at the front, and there were four Jem'Hadar ships coming towards the Defiant.
"Fire at will," his voice rang out, and there was a great crash, and she was thrown off her feet. She wrestled to stand and get to the captain's chair, but the ship kept moving. She felt a sharp pain in her back. The pain intensified and she realized that her clothes were wet. It wasn't time yet, she thought urgently, she couldn't be going into her labour. She willed herself to look down at her lap, and she gasped in horror. After eight children in different life times, she knew it wasn't the stuff that should be there. It was actual blood. She looked around, trying to figure out what to do. Then she saw Dr. Bashir running onto the bridge.
"Julian!" she yelled. He staggered towards her, and as he got closer, she saw a look of understanding in his eyes.
"We need to get you to sickbay," he said, pulling her to her feet. She winced. As they walked into the corridor, a blast threw them against the wall.
"Just hold my hand and keep walking," he told her with forced calm, "As fast as you can."
Somehow they got there.
"I'm going to put you into stasis," Dr. Bashir said, "I need to put you to sleep."
"What about the baby?" she whispered. She knew they couldn't go into stasis together.
"I'll take him out and see what went wrong. I can put him in the other unit."
"You can't do that," she gasped frantically, "It's too early, he's too little."
"We might be able to put him in an artificial womb back at the station."
"We might?! " she cried.
"Jadzia. The ship is under attack. You're bleeding badly. I need to put you down."
I wasn't a question. Before she could protest, she felt a hypospray in her neck, and then she felt the ship lunge. She tried to yell but she couldn't.
She dreamed that Kang was in front of her. He was in Sirella's arms, and Worf and Alexander were nearby. So were Sirella's two living children.
"Kang!" she yelled, but he didn't even look at her. She went up to Sirella, but she turned away.
"Give me Kang," she implored, but Sirella just gave her an evil look. It was the same look she'd given her when she'd wanted to marry Worf. "You're not worthy," it yelled.
"I'm his mom!" she screamed across the void. A bat'leth appeared in her hand and she went up to Sirella with it.
"Give him to me!" she yelled, brandishing the blade.
Sirella grabbed her arm and twisted it. The blade fell. Not willing to fail, she grabbed onto Kang and tried to wrest him from Sirella's arms. Jadzia kicked her as she pulled, and finally, she lost grip.
A rush of relief flooded through Jadzia.
"Kang," she said happily, bouncing him in her arms. But he bit and scratched. "Controlyourself," she said, but he didn't stop. Finally, as his claws went deeper, she pushed him away, but it was too late. His teeth were already digging into her throat. She felt blood pouring out, and then her throat collapsing.
Then there was darkness.