A/N: I finished the story and will forget to update if I don't do it all now so UPDATE SPAM!

It was amazing how much had changed in a year. Nerys stood on the upper floor and looked out over the Promenade. Her Promenade. It had been for nearly four months now. The Prophets had decided to give Captain Sisko back the night Kassidy went into labor. Nerys smiled at the memory of the stir it had caused. Doctor Bashir said that Kassidy went into labor from the shock of her husband suddenly appearing in their bedroom after being gone for nine months. After his return they moved to the house Jake had built on Bajor. The Captain was now just The Emissary. Even when he was gone his name remained on the active duty list, in respect of his memory. So, even though she had been running it for a year now, Nerys had technically only been in official charge of the station for four months. Nerys let her hand slide over the four pips on her high federation collar. It had bothered her when she was on Cardassia, but lo and behold if Bajor wasn't accepted into the Federation two months after the end of the war. Just after she had gotten out of it, Nerys had found herself back in the Federation uniform, and with a promotion too once The Emissary returned. Captain Kira. Nerys smiled. She had just been getting used to being called Commander instead of Colonel when the promotion was announced.

A crash startled her out of her pontification. Quark was yelling a stream of curses in so many different languages no universal translator could keep up. Two of his Ferengi barmen had dropped a large white arch. It was part of the alter for Ezri and Doctor Bashir's wedding. Nerys still had no idea why they wanted to get married on the station, but, as Ezri said, it brought them together. Looking down Nerys saw her favorite spot on The Promenade. It was where Odo had kissed her. Their first kiss. Maybe it wasn't her favorite spot anymore. It had been a year since he left and not a day went by where she didn't feel like her chest was being crushed with grief. Her crewmates thought she was fine. They thought she had handled her grief and moved on. The duties as head of the station kept her busy enough that no one questioned why she never made plans anymore. Even Dax, who had been her closest friend as Jadzia and had taken on the same role as Ezri, seemed to think she was okay. No one knew. No one guessed that she went to sleep every night crying and clutching his bucket to her. It was all she had left of him. After almost two years of breathless nights and stolen kisses all she had was a bucket, pattern 07, from the replicator.

"Sometimes I think Quark is more anxious about the wedding than me." Ezri had appeared at her elbow.

"Probably because he thinks if he does well enough setting it up you'll come to your senses and marry him." Nerys's wry smile and sharp wit never faded, even though her grief.

"You're probably right. How are you Nerys? I haven't seen you in forever." Nerys ran her hands over her face as she sighed before responding.

"Tired. I didn't know how much work it was running a station."

"And we're not even at war."

"I have a sneaking suspicion that The Captain either never did his paperwork or made Nog do it all. You know he tried to intercept new crew orders for me once?"

"Nog?"

"Yes!"

"All along he was the power behind the throne. Who knew?" Nerys laughed at Ezri's flippant comment. As she laughed Ezri stared at her. "How are you Nerys?"

"What do you mean I'm fine."

"No you're not and you haven't been for a year."

"What do you mean" Nerys tried to brush off the comment as if it were absurd.

"I can see it when you laugh. Used to you laughed with your whole body. Always ended up holding on to something or someone. Now its just your face, and even then not your eyes."

"Ezri it wasn't that funny of a joke." Nerys still tried to brush her off, fearing the alternative of opening up. Once she started she knew she couldn't stop and it was just too much. Too much to face. Too much pain.

"Nerys, stop evading me. I know you. I've seen you through two different people's eyes and I know when something is wrong with my closest friend. I also know that tomorrow it will have been one year since Odo left." Nerys fought down the panic of emotions inside her. Not here, not now, not this. She was The Captain, damn it, an ex-rebel. Not some emotional child. Nerys mentally fumbled for a response. Something, anything, to shut Ezri up and make her leave. Before she found an answer the communicator chirped and a voice from the bridge of the station answered for her.

"Ops to Captain Kira."

"Kira here."

"Captain there is a ship about to dock but they are requesting to speak with you personally before doing so. I tried to get them to make an appointment to speak with you after they dock, but they won't accept." Kira smiled apologetically at Ezri as she turned to walk off and deal with the godsend of a situation.

"On my way."

When she got to her office and put the ship that wanted to dock onscreen, Nerys nearly fell off her chair. In front of her was the face of a Changeling. It wasn't Odo. It wasn't a Changeling she had seen before, but the soft, doughy, conformation of his nose, ears, and eyebrows told her it had to be one.

"I see you recognize my species Captain." The Changeling had a high tenor voice, nothing like Odo's. A part of her was thankful for this.

"Y-yes. Of course I do. What can I do for you?"

"Can I say, first off, what an honor it is to be speaking with Kira Nerys, the woman who loved a Changeling. Your name and face are known throughout the great link, even if your hair is longer than when you last were at our planet." Nerys reached up and absentmindedly touched her hair that now hung past her shoulders and was neatly pulled back in a classic Bajoran style.

"You…you know me?"

"We all do. But that is not why I am here. I would like to stay at your station. Only for a little while. I hope to contact the Federation and be given a chance to travel to Earth. My people have done so much harm there, I hope to be given an opportunity to repair that damage."

"Of course you can stay here. You, and all your people, will always be welcome on DS9." Nerys found herself saying the words before she even thought about them. It was the truth though. After Odo she would never be able to judge a Changeling based on race alone. "Before you go. Odo. Is he?" Nerys left the question unsaid, afraid of what it would mean to her heart to say it. The Changeling on the screen looked down.

"No. He remains with my people." Nerys nodded, anxious to end the conversation.

"Well I look forward to meeting you, Kira out." Nerys slammed the button to end the transmission, never even asking his name. She stood and moved to the couch in the office, out of the view of the glass doors. Once there she slowly sat and requested Ezri come to her office over her communicator. After only a minute Ezri appeared at the doors, using her override code to come in, not even bothering to chime. Nerys knew Ezri had heard the desperation in her voice so when the Trill came into the office and sat down next to her she said nothing, only put an arm around the older Bajoran woman. That was it, it was too much. Nerys buckled forward and into Ezri's side, her tears flowing out of her as she moaned in pain.

"What happened, what is it Nerys." Ezri sounded scared. Nerys realized that the poor counselor had no idea what had happened and was assuming some tragedy had occurred. Her urge to care for others taking over, Nerys sat up and wiped away some tears.

"It was a Changeling. He came to the station to make peace."

"But that's good isn't it? I means Odo—oh. Odo?"

"He wasn't on the ship." With that Nerys descended back into tears and Ezri held her close and spoke consoling words. Nerys felt silly crying just because the man she was once involved with didn't come back to her, but she couldn't help it. It felt like a piece of her was missing, and it had chosen not to return.

On the docking ship the male Changeling stepped away from the viewscreen. It had returned to the view from the outside when Kira had ended the transmission. He nodded thanks to the transport captain and returned to his quarters, not wanting to linger on the bridge of another's ship. When he returned to the cramped quarters he found the light out.

"Did the power go out?" he asked the darkness.

"No, I just felt like being in the dark." One part of the darkness shimmered and shifted and regained humanoid form.

"Lights." The lights returned. "She asked about you Odo."

"What did she say?"

"She asked if you were here."

"And what did you tell her?"

"That you weren't."

"Good. Did she look…"

"Sad? I don't know. I can barely make a humanoid face, I can't really read them." The male Changeling chuckled as he looked into the face of his mentor. The mentor of all the Changelings. In his year in the link Odo's shapeshifting abilities had improved greatly. Looking at him now one would hardly believe him to not be a human. The male changeling was jealous of his talents, but knew that as he himself was a child he could hardly be expected to shift as well as others. "Why must I lie to her again?"

"I told you already. I let her go. She has moved on and I don't want her to feel like she has to give up the life she has now just because I'm back in the Alpha Quadrant." The male Changeling nodded then started as a loud noise echoed through the ship. "We're docking. I'll talk to you once we're aboard." With that Odo seemed to melt into a dufflebag, his shifting effortless and beautiful. Once again the male Changeling felt a pang of jealousy.