Shen was born uneventfully, uneventful being a relative term. There was the being put down. There was the surgery. There was the being woken up pre-maturely by Captain Sisko because the station was under attack and he needed her to enter her codes for the torpedo launcher. There was the swearing at Captain Sisko and the stubborn refusal and the pain of open insicions that eventually caused her to relent. There was the eventual reawakening, with Worf at her side to a little girl with a heavy face that had clearly already learned to scream very loudly. The fact that she considered none of this eventful was a testament to all the other events that had happened recently.

Worf was thrilled with the new baby. He seemed completely immune to her screaming.

"As you can see, she is perfectly healthy," Dr. Bashir had said with an amusing shrug that suggested that he wished that she had been born a bit less healthy, or at least expressed it in less vocal ways.

"She just wants a bit of attention," Worf had said lovingly, stroking her fine hair with his large hands.

Of course, it was more than a bit of attention. With the few years that had passed since Kang had been born, Jadzia had forgotten just how much work caring for a baby was. Especially a needy baby. Shen didn't seem satisfied only crying because she was cold or hungry or needed a change, a lot of the time she just wanted to be held. Jadzia and Worf alternated nights sleeping on the couch with Shen. Sometimes Kang would join in because he wanted attention too.

Captain Sisko had given Dax four days before she had to get back to her twelve-hour shifts. She resented this very much. Dax worried that Shen's fussiness was a sign of a very sensitive personality, and she might find being left with Sirella upsetting. Moreover, Sirella was finding a baby difficult to care for at her age, and often handed Shen off to one of her servants.

Jadzia had reached the point where she was done with being civil to Starfleet. She made a point of going into Captain Sisko's office each morning, and not mincing words while telling him she was unhappy. She was also subtly unco-operative, not enough to raise eyebrows, but intentionally making mistakes and misunderstanding orders.

"I'm sorry," she would say whenever she was reprimanded, "I'm just so exhausted." Captain Sisko knew very well she was lying, but he was in a difficult position: his only recourse was to court martial her, and if he did, she wouldn't be available for work.

Worf was busier too. He wouldn't tell her why, that was secret, but he didn't have to. The situation with the Dominion was becoming increasingly critical. Some nights, Worf would bring Klingon colleagues home, and they would eat or have drinks while discussing the war. They spoke strange dialects that the translator couldn't translate and Jadzia couldn't understand. From what she could make out, they were seriously thinking of retreating from the homeworld. Some people thought they should destroy it, but others were past that level of idealism. They needed to either fortify their defences or find a new place to go fast.

To add to it all, Jadzia had a new fear: Worf was ignoring her. She felt guilty worrying about such a trivial thing when so many lives were at stake, but it was always there, biting at her. Most of the time, Worf was gone, but when he was home, he spent his time lavishing affection on Shen and then having over-serious man-to-man chats with Kang. Then he would slump into bed, exhausted. Jadzia vowed not to bring it up to with him, not when he had so many things on his mind, but it still hurt.

Sirella, with her irritating powers of observation noticed this.

"It happened to me when I had my first daughter," she said matter-of-factly, "Martok was suddenly brusque, like he couldn't believe he'd wasted his time on me. That's why I only had two."

"You had three," Jadzia corrected.

"Daughters I mean," Sirella continued, "When I had the first one, I swore I wouldn't have any others, but after I got rid of six of them, I was getting pretty old and I thought I might as well have the last one."

Jadzia froze in shock.

"You did what?" she asked slowly.

"You know. Removal. I can put you in touch if you want. It's done in the first few weeks, very discrete. He wouldn't even have to know you were pregnant."

Jadzia breathed in deeply, and shuddered to control he anger.

"Don't you regret it," she asked evilly, "Now that they're all dead?"

Jadzia was sure that this wasn't the case anyhow, Shen seemed to be Worf's favourite child. But this didn't stop Sirella.

"I found this dress today," she said the next time Jadzia came to pick up the kids, "I'm too old to wear it now, but I thought you'd like it. Very seductive."

Jadzia bristled, but Sirella was right. It was a very good dress. Clearly, no expense had been spared in making it, and it was cut just perfectly around the bust. She decided to wear it for Worf the next time he came home.

"Hello," she said sweetly as soon as he walked into the bed room. She had done her hair and put on lots of makeup as well as the dress. He looked startled.

"You look nice," he said, scanning her body, "Did you put this on just for me?"

"Well, Sirella had this old dress, and I thought ..."

But he didn't let her finish, he pushed her against the wall and started kissing her.

Those first few seconds were bliss. He still loves me, she thought gleefully, I still have it. And as he pulled the dress off her shoulders, she was pleased to see he still couldn't control himself for long.

As she thought that, she heard a scream ring out. Kang.

"I'll get it," Worf said. He was still dressed.

Jadzia waited, amused, as he rather sternly told Kang that warriors must not be afraid of their dreams and put him back to bed.

"I don't think you were very sensitive," Dax chided, laughing, as soon as he was back in the room.

"Next time," Worf said, picking her up and laying her across the bed. He growled as he ran his hands across her body. It was so nice to feel his touch again.

"Sisko to Dax," the Comm. system rang out. Dax ignored it.

"Sisko to Dax," the voice said again. Worf stopped. Dax sighed and started looking for her communicator.

"What is it?" she asked as soon as she found it.

"We need you in ops right now, an unknown ship has just de-cloaked."

"Can this wait fifteen minutes?" she asked rudely. Worf gave her a dirty look for using such a tone with her commanding officer.

"You know it can't," the captain replied without wavering.

Jadzia put on her uniform and stormed out.

Later, Jadzia picked up the dress, washed it and put it away nicely. She never bothered putting in on again.