A/N: To the guest reviewer who left a comment about chapter 44 I wanted to thank you for leaving a review—and also remind you that I *never* do things without a reason ; - ) All shall (hopefully) be revealed in the coming chapter(s)!

Paris Life - IX

Slowly—very slowly—Se'tak came out of his funk. He wasn't fine but between Max, school, and his tutoring gig he began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Thinking about Marie still hurt and he missed her a lot but he continued to hold out hope that someday they could work things out.

Paris, France, 2291.291, 1728 hours. Ifama raised her hand as the others headed out for the night. She'd missed last week's lesson due to a show in Milan and was clearly struggling to catch up. "Se'tak, can you help me a minute? I'm trying to translate this passage but it doesn't make any sense. I think I'm doing it wrong."

"I'll be right there." He looked down at his screen counting the submitted assignments; there were 14, all except Ifama's. Se'tak stood to go help her and saw Zosia hanging by the door. She was watching him intently as she bit her lower lip. "Did you need something too?"

"Hmm? Oh no, I'm good." With that she turned and ran to catch up with Desiree and Venn.

For the next 20 minutes or so he helped Ifama make sense of what she was reading. She might not have been the best student but she was certainly the most enthusiastic. While they were working she kept talking about how she wanted to visit New Vulcan someday and how exotic it all seemed. The walked out of the meeting room together with her still chatting away.

"Maybe we could talk about it sometime? You could give me the inside scoop on the best places to visit."

"Yeah, sure."

"How about over a cup of coffee?" she asked while wildly batting her eyes. "Maybe now, if you're free?"

Now 'Tak was the first to admit he'd been out of the game a little while but he wasn't as dense as all that. "Ifama…"

"Later is fine too…" She was persistent, he'd give her that. He stopped short in the hall and Ifama paused beside him, one hand on her jutted hip, striking her best catwalk pose. Se'tak could see why she got all those runway shows. "Listen, I appreciate the offer, but…" He heaved a sigh, his heart longing for Marie. "But I just got out of a serious relationship and it—well to say it didn't end well would be a big understatement. Huge. And the truth is I'm not really ready to get back out there yet."

She placed a sympathetic hand on his arm. "I understand." Ifama strutted off to the nearest staircase, stopping only as she reached the door. "Oh, and Se'tak?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm not saying I'll wait, but if you're ready and I'm free, the coffee still stands." With that parting shot she left.

It crossed his mind while they were talking that Ifama could be his stalker; however, her tone (and blatant approach) instantly convinced him he was wrong. Besides, he couldn't picture her hurting a fly let alone Rorschach. No, he realized, Ifama wasn't his tormentor.

And in spite of himself 'Tak grinned at her pluck. Maybe in another life, he thought as he headed toward his dorm.

Paris, France, 2291.292, 2147 hours. Friday night—second only to Saturday—was his most hated night of the week. Traditionally Friday night was date night and without Marie in his life it became a stark reminder of all that he'd lost.

After dinner he returned to his room and settled in to watch an old Constantine Dracovich flick, "The French Connection". It was one of his favorites. Halfway through he got a hankering for Red Vines and popped downstairs to the vending machines in the lobby. He was gone no more than 3 minutes.

The door barely had a chance to close behind him when Se'tak registered the presence of another person in the room. He froze and from the shadows between his dresser and the closet his stalker emerged with an eerie grin on her face.

"Hi." She appeared before him with a maniacal look in her eye.

Se'tak kept his arms down around his waist and slowly turned his hands palm out in surrender, feeling like prey caught in a trap. "Zosia?"

"I've been waiting for you."

Stupidly he showed her the candy. "I just stepped out to get these."

She giggled like a school girl. "I wasn't talking about that, silly." Zosia bent over and opened the backpack she'd kept at her feet. She proceeded to pull out a small aluminum tray—and a long, thin, kitchen knife.

As Se'tak watched her closely the blade glinted in the light from his desk lamp. He recognized it; it belonged to the set Marie kept in her apartment. He gulped nervously.

"I've been waiting for you to ask me out," she said as if this entire encounter was commonplace, "But then I decided I'd had enough waiting and came to you. It is movie night, after all. Especially since she left," she snarled. Recollecting herself, Zosia added, "I made you your favorite." She held the container aloft, the knife still in her grip.

"Umm…thanks?"

Her smile broadened. "You're welcome!" She pulled the cover back to reveal a tray of homemade, peanut butter blondies. "I know how much you love peanut butter. I modified your mother's recipe."

Se'tak's whole body went cold. "Y-You," he spluttered, "My mother's…?"

"It was in the PADD in the drawer next to the stasis," she calmly replied. "I got it when you were out at the rehearsal dinner."

His hands went clammy and his heart skipped a beat. She'd been in his house.

His stalker had been in his house. In San Francisco.

"Zosia, why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" she asked sweetly, cutting a generous sized blondie from the tray.

"You've been stalking me for awhi…"

"Following," she cut off curtly, the knife poised menacingly in his direction.

"You're right, I'm sorry." He brought his hands up to chest level to show he meant no offense. "It's been a long day, I wasn't thinking clearly." Seeing Zosia settle back down again he gulped hard and tried to remember the too-brief lesson he'd had in hostage negotiation. The only pertinent tidbit Se'tak could recall was to keep the hostage-taker calm.

Would that it work on his hostage-taker.

She held up a dessert square, the knife idly pointed in his direction. "Blondie?'

"S-sure." Nervously Se'tak took the treat from her but Zosia wouldn't allow him to escape so easily. Her fingers intimately trailed over his in an indecent manner; and while he wanted nothing more than to recoil from her touch the contact allowed him to discern the full extent of her infatuation. She was out of her g-ddamn mind.

"She doesn't know you like I do," Zosia continued oblivious to his thoughts while carving another piece of dessert from the tray.

"Who? Marie?"

"No," she laughed. "Not that stupid little French whore. She was all wrong for you. I knew it from the start and I tried to tell you but you wouldn't listen. It's a good thing she ran back to Annecy. No, I mean Ifama. She's not right for you; she doesn't know you like I do."

Oh no. She'd fixated on a new target. Now that she'd got Marie out of the way she thought Ifama was a threat to 'their' happiness. If nothing else Se'tak had to protect her. "Ifama means nothing to me," he replied. "She's just a student. She's barely even smart enough for the class. Trust me, I'm not into her."

Zosia abandoned her work and took a step closer. "I do trust you. And I knew you'd say that. She really is dim." She moved closer to the bed he'd been sitting on earlier and patted the mattress invitingly. "Why don't we go back to watching the flick? You can catch me up on what I missed."

Se'tak knew—knew—that sitting on that bed would be the end of him. Instead he chose to stand his ground, liking his chances. "Why don't we talk instead?"

She cocked her head and studied him queerly for a moment. "What'd you want to talk about?"

"About us, of course," he said, hoping to stay on her good side and keep her talking. Maybe if he could somehow bide his time they could both get out of this in one piece. "How it all started…"

"You remember?!" she gasped.

Se'tak hesitated. The first time they met—according to his recollection—was his class. However, Zosia seemed to think otherwise. What to say, what to say… "Of course," he hesitantly offered, "We were…outside…"

"Yes," she nodded eagerly, "At Café Julien!"

"That's right! We were at the café."

"And you held the door open for me," she readily supplied him. "You were going out and I was going in and you stepped aside and held the door open for me." Zosia clasped one hand dramatically to her heart. "It was so sweet of you." She sighed. "And you smiled at me and you were just so handsome—I couldn't help falling in love. I knew then and there that we were meant to be together."

He held his tongue. Was she for real? All this aggravation and heartbreak because he held a door open for her? What the hell was wrong with her?

Testing his boundaries Se'tak took another step to the door, hands still held up in surrender. If they could get outside, go somewhere public, maybe he could get help. "Why don't we go there now?"

Zosia stepped closer still with the knife held fast in her grip. "But I want to stay in…"

"We can come back after," he promised. Slowly, gently, he attempted to cradle her knife-wielding hand in both of his. "Let's go have a night out on the town first. My treat."

"A night out?" She was almost breathless with anticipation. "Like a date? Just you and me?'

He nodded. He almost had the upper hand on the situation. Another second more and he'd be able to twist the knife away and subdue her…

Suddenly a loud, steady knock on his door arrested their attention. "Se'tak?" Max called out from the hall. "You in there?" Both were startled by the sound and he and Zosia looked down in mute, twin horror to see the hilt of the boning knife sticking out of his gut.

With her free hand she stifled a gasp while Se'tak did his best to staunch the bleeding. "It's ok," he whispered reassuringly. "It's ok."

They both knew that wasn't true. Without warning she yanked the knife out and as the bleeding increased he sank to the floor, landing first on his knees before falling to his side. Zosia watched him go down in open-mouthed panic, the knife in her hand dripping in his emerald blood.

"Se'tak?" Max called out once again.

Zosia looked at the blade then to him on the floor and back again. "Maybe this was the way all along," she uttered under her breath. "Now we can be together forever." Next thing he knew she drew both hands to the knife and plunged it straight into her heart.

His stalker fell down dead beside him.

Max figured he'd find his cousin in his dorm room—it was Friday after all—but when he didn't answer he decided to head home. He was about to leave when he heard what sounded like a sack of potatoes fall to the floor.

"Se'tak?"

All was quiet—and then he heard that strange thump again.

Maybe 'Tak was sick. Maybe he needed help. Taking a breath Max entered in the door code—the one his cousin said was for emergencies only—and took a look inside.

Se'tak lay on his back gasping for air, his hands slick with blood and a stain growing wider by the second on his shirt, while an unknown girl lay beside him with a knife in her heart and an eerily peaceful look on her face. "SE'TAK!"

Max was by his side in an instant trying to hold pressure, his cousin barely registering his presence. "Oh mon Dieu! No, no, no, no, no…" He looked up and grabbed a shirt off the back of 'Tak's desk chair to help stop the bleeding. "Aide, s'il vouz-plaît, aider! Someone please help us! PLEASE!" Max pleaded, screaming so hard the whole building could hear him. He tried to fumble for his comm but it slipped from his hands and landed in a pool of commingled blood on the floor.

His vision swam in and out of focus and he felt cold all over. Blinking in the dim light he looked up and recognized his ceiling. Why am I on the floor…?

"Stay with me, Se'tak! Come on, stay with me!"

Max? He looked over to see his cousin kneeling over him. He was the spitting image of Uncle Pavel, but why was he so pale? And how come it was so cold in here? More pressure was suddenly applied to his side making him see stars. Lifting his head up slightly he saw Max holding him steady, his forearms covered in green.

Oh right, I was stabbed…

By now a small gathering of students stood huddled around the door watching and waiting for an ambulance to arrive. "Stay with me, Se'tak!" Max cried. "Come on, stay with me!" His cousin looked to him briefly with dull, unfocused eyes…which quickly rolled to white as he started shivering violently.

"He's going into shock!" one of the throng pronounced.

Max turned to them with a horror-stricken look on his face. He didn't know what else to do. 'Tak was going to die and there was nothing he could do. He was helpless.

A young woman of Middle Eastern descent stepped around the gawkers crowding the doorway and entered the room. She made a gasp of recognition as she saw the dead girl on the floor then quickly side-stepped them all and took a blanket off 'Tak's bed. The girl draped them with it then sank to her knees and cradled his cousin's head in her lap.

"Ek'dungi kup muhl,*" she repeated calmly and slowly in halting Vulkhansu. He didn't know what the words meant but they helped keep his panic at bay.

The EMT's arrived moments later to whisk them away.

* "Ek'dungi kup muhl" = Vulkhansu, "All will be well."