I love Easter. It totally rox my sox! Dying eggs with the family is lots of fun, and we all get to dye like 8 eggs. We got a new brand of egg dye that was WAY better than the old kind. It had brown, and two pinks and two greens! Anyway, here's a little chapter I like to call. . . CHAPTER SEVEN! That's an original name if I ever heard one! JK.

Chapter Seven: Not Completely Empty

Sisko

"What are we going to do about this?" Sisko asked no one in particular. He had called an emergency meeting of the senior staff. "Somehow, we have Gul Dukat's blood in Garak's shop and Kira out cold. To our knowledge, Dukat wasn't even on the station. So, do we contact Cardassia and confront Dukat or search the station for more clues?" Sisko sat down at the head of the long table and looked out at four pairs of blank eyes.

Sisko sighed. "Okay, Doctor, report. Let's try to put this together one piece at a time." Sisko folded his hands and leaned back, gazing expectantly at the young doctor.

Bashir instinctively sat up straighter and said, "Garak doesn't admit to witnessing anything out of the ordinary happening. He seems healthy enough, but his head was a bit bruised. I'll run a more detailed brain test to see if there was any damage. Kira seems to be recovering, slowly, but she's still very unstable."

Sisko nodded as everyone turned toward him again. "Constable?"

"I have checked the logs of ships that have docked and left here in the past several days," Odo said. "I could find nothing that would suggest Gul Dukat had come to the station. I don't know how he could have gotten past security or fled the station so quickly. Our only probable witness refuses to admit anything, as Doctor Bashir has already mentioned. I will continue to investigate."

Sisko turned on Dax. "What do you have for us, Lieutenant?"

Dax shifted to the front of her chair and responded, "Well, I've given this a lot of thought, and I think I've come up with something. We know Dukat isn't on the station now, and we don't think he could have gotten away. We know that his blood is on the walls, and a lot of it. He may be dead, but he also may have gotten off the station without our knowing. If he got in, he might be able to get out. I think we should come up with another reason for contacting him, just to see where he is. If he isn't on Cardassia, then he is on his way there or still here."

Everyone thought about this. There was a long silence until O'Brien said, "I agree with Dax. I think that we should eliminate as many possibilities as we can. Then we have less to think about. And maybe the Cardassian government doesn't know where he is either."

Sisko was deeply submerged in thought. "All right," he finally said. "Let's say for a moment that we do contact the Cardassians. What do we say? We certainly can't just ask where Dukat is; that would raise a lot a questions."

"Dukat himself may be there," Odo reminded the group. "If he is there, what would we say to him?"

"We could use the excuse that Kai Winn would like Dukat to personally attend the next Bajoran-Cardassian peace talk," Dax suggested. "I'm sure she'll be contacting us soon to check on Kira anyway. We could try to persuade her to play along." There was an uncertain pause from everyone. "Somewhere deep down, she's got a heart," Daxadded, looking at Sisko.

Doctor Bashir was thinking that the heart of a Bajoran was actually higher in position than that of a human, but he decided to say something else. "I suppose telling the truth is out." Everybody's eyes turned toward the doctor. "Well, I just think that we make up excuses most of the time, like we're hiding something. What would happen if we just told the truth once?"

"I really don't think the Cardassians would take it well if we told them that Gul Dukat had somehow been on the station and was involved, probably in a bad way, in our newest mystery," Chief O'Brien pointed out. He always used the word "Cardassian" with a certain amount of disgust. Chief O'Brien had never liked the almost snake-like aliens.

Bashir sighed. "I know," was all he said. Then he just leaned back in his chair and listened to the others speak with his arms folded across his chest.

"Okay," Sisko said. "So we're going to contact Kai Winn first. Then, depending on what she says, we contact the Cardassians or Gul Dukat. Correct?" No one responded, but he hadn't expect them to. "Dismissed."

Dax, Odo, Bashir, and O'Brien departed to get back to their usual jobs.

Garak

Lying on his bed in the Infirmary, Garak was bored out of his mind. He looked from side to side, examined the medical equipment, and napped sometimes to occupy his time. Mostly, though, he gazed worriedly at Kira. To him, she didn't seem to be getting any better. If anything, she looked worse. Garak's heart was not completely empty of compassion.

Often, Garak wondered why Bashir wouldn't let him leave. "One more test," was his repeated excuse. When would the doctor simply do the test and release him from his prison? Bashir had even admitted that Garak was not ill. Surely he needed the Infirmary for sickly patients. Garak had been good and hadn't run off back to his shop while the doctor was away. Sometimes he considered doing that, but Doctor Bashir would just make him come back. What would be the use?

During the senior staff's meeting, Garak was intently staring at a monitor near his bed. He had nearly figured out what all the different abbreviations stood for, what all the colors meant, and how the meters worked when Kira regained consciousness.

At first she just mumbled almost inaudibly. "Move. . . come. . . why. . . no. . . you. . . away. . . please!" Her voice grew as she sleep-talked, and the last word was almost a scream. Garak didn't know what to do.

A nurse hurried in to investigate. "What the - -" was all she needed to utter before knowing 'what the - -' was going on. She rushed to Kira's side and got to work straightaway. She knew that Doctor Bashir would like to be notified of this miracle and said, accompanied by a series of clicks from her combadge, "Bashir to the Infirmary immediately!"

So? What did you think? Spread some Easter love and write me a review will ya? Please? I really do like to read new reviews, but they mostly come from the AMAZING Bellatrix Dax (kudos to you!). Ciao-la, and happy Easter!