So, without forcing it - and I know I didn't as it's a gut feeling - this is the last of this story I had a blast doing. :) Read and review, as always.
Chapter Nine
The group of doctors - both Vorta and human - surrounded Keevan's body, unhooking him from the machines and disconnecting the medicinal cords from his veins. The oxygen mask was removed from his mouth, exposing a pale face that looked like he was sleeping instead of dead. But he was so melancholy, so alone. Failed even though everyone around him tried to save him - even when the virus that he succumbed to was too incurable.
Looking over Keevan's peaceful face, Ezri felt a pang of grief of her own.
She was still holding onto Vera as she continued to cry for her lost spouse. She remembered how Worf roared his anguish when his wife died before him, and she could imagine losing Julian one day, or him losing her. The both of them - her and Vera in her embrace - knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. She massaged the grieving redhead's back as she watched as Vera's husband's corpse was wrapped in a blanket. His face remained uncovered, however, so she could have the chance to look at him one last time before he was taken away back to the Gamma Quadrant.
Julian was standing there, shaking his head and running his fingers through his hair, the failure inexcusable in his mind. He then turned away to be beside them. "Vera, I'm so sorry," he said softly, reaching over and putting his hand on her shoulder. She jerked at the contact but held onto Dax. "I wish there was something I still could have done."
She raised her head from the crook of Ezri's shoulder and looked up at him. Her eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks puffy and shining with tears. "There was nothing you could have done," she choked. "We all wished there was something to be done - but there wasn't."
He sighed and nodded. "I don't know if there's any consolation for you in this, but Yutaron will be back home, too, facing his crimes and the Crimson Shadow Virus is to be destroyed, according to Odo. I don't know what will happen to him, though, but it'll be just."
Ezri lowered her eyes to the floor. Vera must be having vengeful thoughts of her own, but didn't speak them aloud. She wanted Yutaron to pay for what he did, but she wasn't a soldier or a justice system member. Ezri understood how she felt, but revenge did not solve anything. It wouldn't bring her husband back, either. "Am I allowed to see him before they take him?" she asked softly, pulling herself away from the Trill.
"We won't take him for another few hours, but you may spend as long as you want with him," Sadara said as she came up to them, her sensitive ears picking it up. She nodded to her fellow Vorta, who were all carefully picking up Keevan's wrapped body and taking him out of the infirmary.
~o~
How could life be so CRUEL?
She had been so happy, but it was for a short amount of time. She was cheated on and divorced the first time, then her second time was a chance for true happiness before he was cruelly taken from her by one overtly insane member of his people; she almost died herself, and now she wished she really had. She got the feeling she would never be happy.
She was looking over the face of her husband as he slept peacefully and would forever. She ran her hand across his forehead, feeling the cold, clammy skin and now-coarse curls against her fingers. The circles under his eyes remained, and the shine of sweat on his body had dried up. His lips appeared to be cracking. Vera bowed her head and felt the tears well.
"How?" she croaked. "How could this happen to you - to us? To think it didn't seem like this would happen, but it did. Why couldn't we have the happiness we deserved after everything that's happened? It's like we're both...jokes in the eyes of the universe, no matter where we go. You showed me I could love again, and I showed you that love existed and made you stronger.
"You remember the first day we met - well, I remember before that, when I saw you for the first time. You were almost attacked by a mob of angry residents of all races because of who and what you were, but bless Colonel Kira for saving you. Then it might have been luck to know you lived across the hallway from me, and not many days later, I made you my grandmama's peach pie and brought it over to you, because I was the first person to welcome you to this station and treat you like a person instead of a monster, an outsider. Because you deserved it." She laughed a little. "You couldn't taste it, only said it was filling, and you liked the texture. I was the first and only friend you ever had, and you were everything I wanted in a man; we started out as friends because we were both scared of wanting more, that falling in love was a mistake. But we were both proven wrong when the months went by and then we one day kissed for the first time, after the first dance we ever shared. A song that, now that I think about it, paralleled to us and what we would soon have. It was like it was meant to be.
"And then, weeks later, you manned up and said you wanted more, asked me to marry you - to which I said yes, and then we got married on Earth, where it was all perfect. I remember the wedding night where it was your first time with me, and I'd not been with another man since my first marriage ended...but either way, we had something special." Her heart stopped beating right then and there. "But after it all, after we had only just gotten back from our honeymoon on the wondrous Casperia Prime, it was nothing but misfortune. And now, you're...look at what he's done to you, my love! To US!"
Keevan would never truly hear her words, nor would he ever open his eyes and smile at her, reach up with one hand to touch her cheek, pull her down for a final kiss. So Vera was the one to lean down and kiss his dried, cool lips one last time, whispering to him.
"I love you."
Her throat clenched a little before she managed to force the words from her throat, from the song of their first dance: "Come, my love, our worlds may part. The gods will guide us across the dark. Come with me and be mine, my love. Stay and break my heart. From the shores through the ancient mist, you bear the mark of my elven kiss. Clear the way; I will take you home to eternal bliss."
With that, she gave him one more kiss and then reached for the blanket, drawing it over his face to give him his peace, then turned to leave the area.
~o~
Odo had been outside the room, listening to every word the grieving widow said to her husband's body, feeling himself melt inwardly, the best way to put it as he was not solid. Weyoun was with him, watching curiously and understanding even if he might not be able to form the attachment. He shook his head; the Vorta were still adherent to the forbidden attachment code the Founders long held over their heads. But Keevan proved that it was impossible.
"It's impressive, Odo," he said after a moment. "How two people can be so strong together, endure all obstacles..."
"But do you even know what it is like to cherish them as though they are a part of you - only to lose them in the end?" Odo asked sharply. "Are you even capable of that, Weyoun?"
The Vorta looked at him with wide eyes for a moment before bowing his head. "O-oh, I don't - I never considered it wise. I don't even know if it is the right thing to feel these attachments..."
Odo sighed in exasperation. "Weyoun, this is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to despise and forbid. My people were wrong to oppose this on their servants. When you see someone and it doesn't matter who or what they are, it's indescribable, but you know for sure that it is utter bliss that makes you happier than you could ever remember - and you never want to let it go. You never want to let them go. I wish I understood why it was so forbidden in several cultural cases, including your own, but when you mate and bind yourself to one physical being, it enhances the strength of your every being. Myself and Colonel Kira - I may have left her to rebuild what my people have torn down and remade out of fear, hatred and domination, but I still love her more than I did then."
Weyoun's thoughts might as well have been seen all over his face. He was reconsidering whatever - or should Odo say, whoever - it was that he had to change his mind and go for what he personally wanted for himself, but he didn't even need his Founder's permission all along. "Who is the one on your mind?" he asked his aide. "The both of you have your...god's blessing -" He had to force the word out as much as he didn't want to. "- to be together."
Weyoun's lavender eyes lit up. "Eris." A smile lit up his face that Odo returned it.
"When we return to the Gamma Quadrant, you two are going to do a great deal in convincing the others as well."
The ambassador nodded before halting. "But, what about...Keevan? His template was to have been deleted, and -"
"But was it?" Odo questioned.
Weyoun shook his head. "Not at all. As you know, Borath loves all of his subjects as they are his own children, much like Sadara cares for anyone who go to her for treatment. If I'd known Borath any better, I'd say he saved Keevan's genetic data." Odo nodded, taking a look at the figure now passing by them and without a second glance. Vera was done with spending her time with Keevan's body, no longer looking back and not even knowing her husband could be brought back again. He considered telling her just to ease her pain, before he decided to surprise her with bringing Keevan back and sending him back to the station. He looked at Weyoun, seeing that the Vorta knew what he was thinking.
"Odo, she won't be let down."
~o~
Vera had not been well ever since her husband died two weeks before. In those days she quit her job and became a wreck and old shell of who she used to be, as far as she could see of herself. She still ate and kept herself in shape, but it was not the same without her Keevan.
Perhaps this was what she wanted. Everyone around her said it was not healthy to just be laying around, or sitting around, avoiding those around her. She had not spoken to Ezri since her husband's body was taken away, nor had she spoken to Julian or anyone else - even her mother who had realized how deeply she wronged both her daughter and Keevan, wanted Vera to forgive her. Would she ever?
No. Never.
Her mother had always made clear her dislike; how could Vera let that go so easily? She wasn't there for Vera when she succumbed into the abyss of grief and water. She didn't want to see Norah again, but her mother tried to see her countless times. If only she could have had a restraining order issued or if Norah would respect her wishes!
There were nights she would lay in the bathtub, closing her eyes and wishing she could duck her head underwater, then drown herself so she could be with Keevan in the next life. That is, IF the Vorta believed in an afterlife. Everything about them was based on science and not idyllic beliefs; they did believe the Founders were gods, but gods never walked amongst mortals. Vera would always pull her head out from underwater, gasping for air as nearly suffocating herself was a release of tension.
And then, on the last day of the second week, her quarters were buzzed once again. She screamed in anger. "Come in!" If it was Norah - "Oh, Ezri!" She fell back onto her sofa, turning her face away from the Trill. "I thought you were my mother."
The counselor laughed a little. "We haven't spoken for weeks and that's the first thing you say to me."
Vera still could not look at her. She did want her friends, but how could she go on with life after losing her one true love? "I'm sorry, as too easy as it sounds," she said, leaning over the armrest and putting her head on top of it. "I really don't know what to do with my life anymore. Keevan is gone, so what do you and everyone else expect me to do?"
She had never pushed friends away before; grief always changed you, it seemed. Never in her life did she lose someone she loved before, save for her grandparents when she was still a child. But when it came to the one you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with, it was a much deeper matter entirely. With what Ezri told her about Worf losing his wife, her predecessor Jadzia, she could imagine what the Klingon must have gone through.
"Vera, I know what you're feeling, and I'm not saying it just because I'm your friend." She felt the weight of the couch shift as Dax sat beside her. "As someone who isn't close to her mother either, I don't like her any more than you do, but you've been harsh on everyone as of lately. Including me. We were letting you have all the time to yourself, but this just...isn't healthy for yourself. You have all the time to grieve all you want, but you're too young to keep yourself locked up in here."
"Worf did much better than I did!" Vera countered as she finally glared up at her friend. "He was strong, and I'm not! I was wrong to think I was! I never thought love would hurt so much, but it does! I wish I...never fell in love again." She wasn't sure if she meant it or not, but now that she did, she wished she could say yes because she might be young for her age, but everything crashed down so damned easily...
The quarters buzzed, but she did not feel like answering, instead turned away from the door, leaving Ezri to answer for her. "Come in."
The doors opened, from her hearing, and there was Julian's voice. "I'm sorry to interrupt, ladies, but someone wants to see Vera," he said.
"I don't want to see my mother, thank you very much," Vera snapped, and if it was, she would scream to the high heavens...
"Not quite. Someone much better."
That VOICE...
She shrieked and jumped up, falling to the floor and avoiding the table altogether, looking up as she sat upright on her knees. Standing behind Julian was none other than... "I'm sorry, beloved," Keevan said, a small smile showing, "but it took them awhile to get my cloning template back into place with the others, as well as overseeing Yutaron's trial, but here I am now. They thought it best to surprise you with my return rather than speaking to Colonel Kira to notify you herself."
They brought him back...they let her to think he'd never come back for two weeks - and here he was in their quarters, standing in their doorway! Vera wanted to scream in anger that he did this to her, but it wasn't his fault. Joy flooded through her, and the tears rolled down her cheeks with lightning speed as she leaped to her feet. "Oh, Keevan!" she squealed, jumping on him and into his arms for him to spin her around and kiss her wildly, whirling around before tumbling to the floor together in front of their friends who were both laughing before the doctor sat beside his wife on the couch to watch the other couple hit the floor in front of them.
Vera laid on her back, now oblivious to the other two, gazing up into her husband's amethyst eyes again; his happiness was as evident as her own was. Now she could forget about her promise to remain a widow for the rest of her life, because nothing would ever part them again for a much longer time to come.
This story came out exactly as I wanted it to be - short, sweet, straight to the point, and very deep at the same time - and what better to include "Tir Na Nog" when Vera sings to her dead husband in the beginning? :) Now I'm giving my attention to a new collection of oneshots in a single story which will be called "Tales of the Kama Sutra", and very soon I will bring forth the third and final in the Vorta Brides Trilogy, "Yelgrun and Lynet: Chosen for the Marriage Bed"; its predecessors are "Weyoun and Mia: His Enemy's Daughter" and "Keevan and Annora: Forged in the Desert Heat".
