JMJ

Chapter Seven

Making a Withdrawal

Quark knew that Paik had been there since before they got there. He always stayed late. And Bashir? Well, he had not been expecting him, but he had heard him long before he had seen him. It was on purpose somehow. He wasn't sure why, but it was. Quark only laughed as he strolled down the middle of the great hall and slapped the doctor on the back on the way out.

"Shoulda brought an imager, doctor!"

Bashir smiled wryly back. "Happy reunion…"

Quark smiled and nodded.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Quark," added Bashir then to Sharlezeed.

Sharlezeed scrunched her nose in confused amusement. "Thank you… doctor."

"Who is that?" whispered Sharlezeed as they moved on.

Quark waved his hand carelessly aside, "Dr. Julian Bashir. Sure you heard of him, the Human doctor who helped against the Keeoopii invasion?"

"Oh, yes!"

"A friend. He's working at the Tower. I can explain him some other time. We should just have him over, in fact!"

"Alright."

With her hand in his, they hurried down the steps from the ship, not bothering much about the rain that struck them between these doors and the covered walkway down the street beyond the gate. As giddy as a pair of teenagers they laughed. The rain was more a shower of confetti over their heads from a boisterous crowd in the sky, happy for them in their ecstasy, but they were quite alone now, save perhaps the spiritual realm unseen or heard but felt immensely as though helping them along.

Once they were under the covered walkway, Sharlezeed threw back her hood. "So much for wait—"

Quark only kissed her, and the only thing that stopped it from being as romantic as he wanted it was her laughing again. Nah! That made it better than romantic as far as he felt concerned.

This moment? It was a feeling of elation beyond anything, except his freedom from his depression almost exactly a year ago. How much it made sense that the reason for the freeing of his spirit was now one with the freeing in this physical manner now too.

"Our souls have been waiting for over thirty years!" he laughed back insidiously. "Renewed souls, renewed vows— it's all a clean and pristine slate now! Just you and me and the rest of the universe!"

He held her close and Sharzee pressed so hard into his chest that he was sure she could hear right through the marrow of his bones. He felt and heard her too as though she was one and the same body as his own.

Never will we part now, he thought. Forever and ever.

No contract, no arm, no terror or hatred would ever get in the way, and he did not care what anyone thought or anyone said. Even the celebrant from the ship was laughing at them as they left, but Quark knew in the best possible way. And as they parted, he said almost giddily, "So, Sharzee… are you gunna give the latinum to your brother tonight or should I just send it to him? Do you have business to attend to back in Lagoran?"

He meant it to sound sober, but business really did not sound like anything to worry about, so distant and unimportant. Was he a Ferengi still?

"I'm sure I just knocked his head clean off with it," laughed Quark amiably. "He's my brother-in-law, after all, and he can call it a late license fee if he wants to."

Sharzee smiled. "I can stay here for a little while…" she began with a sparkling grin.

"Then you want me to go with you and help you close up there when the time comes?"

"I think in what's left of tonight you need to rest," said Sharzee pressing her ear once more to his chest. "Don't deny what I hear. You'll be good for nothing tomorrow as it is, and you have so much to do tomorrow."

"Oh, mostly just saying goodbye to the guests, nothing too mentally taxing," Quark assured her, "Besides, I feel more full of energy than I did this morning."

"It's technically this morning now," laughed Sharzee. "Please. Don't ruin it. Don't be silly. We're not children. We're not eloping. We're business partners now in the business of life."

Quark nodded more soberly as he looked down at the walk, but he was still smiling from ear to ear.

"If only we were eloping, I'd take you for a month-long cruise along the rivers of Lappa's Noon-moon, and croon the 'Honey and the Bee'," teased Quark.

"You crooning?" said Sharzee "As lovely as a Lappa crooner bird."

"I'll bet a bar or two on that!" sneered Quark, and with a nod he lifted up a finger. "But I do like a good business partner too. Hmm, what a decision! Maybe we should think it over with a drink to celebrate! Can't do business on an empty stomach."

"Oh, I love you. Go to bed, Quark!" said Sharzee reaching up to kiss him once more.

"My nagus…" teased Quark obediently when they broke away again. "I'll contact you tomorrow when I get time, how's that?"

"Yes."

"Bite the bedbugs for me then, hmm?"

"I will."

He could not help but feel a slight chill, but it was a good chill, because it was the chill of the thrill of reuniting with her tomorrow. No longer bitter, no longer lost, and now no longer alone…

"Neen lat gren…*" he breathed, offering it as a solemn prayer.

#

"Come on, it's time to get up!"

"Oh, Moogee, I don't want to do my lessons. They're so hard first thing in the…"

Rom lifted his head and found to his dismay that he had drooled on his pillow, but he didn't react as quickly as he might have. He felt weak. He felt buzzed. He felt miserable. He wanted to go back to sleep.

"Rom?"

Was it stress? His ears didn't hurt, but he did feel them drumming. They drummed like the rest of his body with a forcefulness that made him shake.

"Leeta…" his voice sounded so dry that it surprised himself. "I can't…"

Leeta came over already dressed, though she had not quite had her hair made up or her makeup the way she liked it. He always told her that she looked fine without it, and that he did not understand the makeup at all. Moogee had always looked fine without it, and Leeta looked like an angel now haloed in the blurring light of the ceiling lamp gilded in gold-pressed latinum, tinted in rose.

"What do you mean you can't," she asked smiling with ethereal beauty. "It's gunna be a lot easier than yesterday…" she paused studying him, and she quickly shook her head. "Are you alright?"

"I… I don't know," said Rom; his chest burned when he held his breath to speak, and he moaned. "I think I'm sick."

"Didn't you sleep last night?"

"Yes. At least, I don't remember anything since you said good night."

"Are you really that stressed? Or… do you want a doctor to look at you?"

The sudden panic her voice alarmed Rom beyond control. He let out a horrendous moan. "Am I going to die?"

"No! You'd think that if someone had been able to get in here and kill you they would've just done it, but— just stay here, okay?"

Rom nodded.

As Leeta hurried to call in a doctor, she stopped suddenly and turned to Rom again. "Did you feel sick last night?"

"No— I…" He blinked. "I don't know!"

The more he moved the worse he felt. He shivered and put his hand to his chest as his breaths became sharper and shallower.

"Leeta!" he choked.

"Doctor!" Leeta's voice echoed on emergency transmition. "It's Ro—the Grand Nagus. I… Rom!" she screamed.

Rom had no idea what he looked like, but he could feel himself shaking. His vision blurred all the more. She sounded so distant. Not even the worst ear infection had ever felt this bad. His whole body felt like it was slamming against some hard surface again and again.

Just as he felt Leeta's hot embrace, consciousness left him.

#

"Muh—mih…Moogee?" cracked Rom. "Is… is that you?"

He must have still been dreaming if it was, but he felt the leathery skin of that bony hand caressing his sweaty forehead. He shivered a little. He nestled into her arm as the hand caressed his cheek.

"Sh… Rom."

It was her voice. She leaned down calmly and kissed his head now too. She pressed her head against his a moment, and he sighed with such relief.

"Oh, Moogee. It is you… I'm not delirious. What happened? All I remember is lights and frantic action and lots and lots of…" he swallowed hard at the memory. "… pain…"

An echo of that pain returned as he felt his heart speed up with the intensity of the memory.

"Oh, Rom…" whispered Leeta on the other side of the bed.

It was a Ferengi medical bed, perfectly circular but with round slices on the left and right middles to get closer to the body, and Leeta now was in one semi-circle and Ishka in the other.

"There, there," said Moogee with the confidence he needed, and he tensed his body towards that confidence as though sipping at a fountain to quench a thirst that had brought him to the brink of death. "Just rest…"

"Okay," said Rom droopily.

He closed his eyes again feeling quite replete.

#

When he was asleep again, Ishka turned to the doctor.

"He has to stay calm or he won't remain stabilized," said Ferengi doctor Tal.

Ishka lifted her eyes sullenly from where she sat on an ottoman-style seat she had scooted into that semicircle in the low bed.

Leeta bit her lip.

"If security was stronger this wouldn't've happened," said Ishka.

"We're still not one hundred percent sure what happened," retorted Dr. Tal.

"Besides the fact that this was no accident…" said Ishka quietly, but with dangerous magnitude in her tone.

"Ishka…" said Leeta.

Before Tal could open his mouth enough to say anything more himself, both he and Ishka were interrupted by the sound of rushing in the corridor beyond. Quite keen to that look of listening now, Leeta turned to them and then up at the Hupyrian guard Topl'rintia, who never ceased to display his look of failure and guilt at guarding Rom poorly. Their eyes met; then both she and the guard looked back at the Ferengis' suspicious-filled turned faces staring at the door just before the door swooshed open.

"Is Rom okay?" gasped Quark looking quite as if he had run quite a ways to get here, and he panted heavily leaning on his knees for support for a second or two afterwards.

Leeta sighed in relief that it was no one but family, but she winced as she looked at Ishka again, who obviously had wished for anyone to enter but Quark.

"His blood is drained of almost all its supply of pyrocyte," said Ishka looking away. "Don't startle him or cause him any grief, Quark."

Quark stared blankly for a few seconds. Then he frowned. "Drained of pyrocyte? Why isn't he dead?"

Ishka glared but said nothing. Leeta stood up and hurried towards him.

"Quark," she said quietly. "He had a heart attack."

"H…how'd my mother get here so quick?" asked Quark despite himself.

Leeta gave him a face, and Quark shook his head.

"He's going to upset Rom," said Ishka again looking away.

"I think you better talk outside," said Dr. Tal. "For the sake of the Nagus. In the old days you could have been fined ten bars of latinum for the very risk of disturbing him in such a state."

"I…" Quark started and then faltered.

"Fine him later," Ishka remarked.

Leeta grabbed Quark and pulled him back out the door.

"I'm sorry," said Quark once the door sealed shut behind them. "I just want to know what's going on! I just woke up this morning and I'm told that Rom's in medical care. Do we have any leads? Can the doctor fix him? Surely we can insert pyrocyte back into him. Pyrocyte deficiency is rare, but it's not incurable. He's the Nagus!"

"Dr. Tal is working on it."

"I can't remember anyone taking pyrocyte out of a living person," Quark went on rubbing his head. "Usually, it's extracted after the blood's been drawn. The marauders have been using it as a tactic against their enemies for centuries, but why would someone take pyrocyte out of a person, especially to only go part way?"

"I—!" said Leeta, tears flooded her eyes and she fell against his shoulder. "I don't know."

Quark stepped back and grabbed her arms gently but firmly as he looked into her swollen eyes that obviously already had been occupied with floods of tears previous to this.

"Sorry…I," he said looking away. "I'm sorry. You must have had a terrible morning."

"Quark," said Leeta. "The doctor doesn't know the true state of Rom's condition or why someone would do this. Their goal wasn't to kill him. That's obvious."

"Where's Mr. and Mrs. Aploos, by the way?" Quark suddenly asked.

Leeta wrung her hands. "I don't know if they've been informed yet or not."

"Well, whoever did this wouldn't need to kill Rom to interrupt proceedings with Pelipa, but it would have been easier to kill him, then not."

"Right now, I'm just glad they didn't!"

Quark shook his head. "It's a warning if they didn't kill him…" He paused. "But he is stabilized, right?"

"As long as he doesn't get too excited. I had no idea that the pyrocyte was so important to keeping you so…"

"Yeah, well, when most of the universe pumps slower than glob-sap and weaker than cold radik soup, it's the lubricant that keeps us from burning ourselves out. There's always a catch to these things…" Looking away he muttered seething, "I think I know who might know…" But before Leeta could ask, Quark said, "Does anyone else know about the situation right now? There's nothing I'm missing?"

"Well, Dr. Tal needs to run more tests to be certain," said Leeta, "but he believes that the pyrocyte was not actually removed by inorganic means."

"What does that mean?" asked Quark with some irritation. "That some new parasite is sucking it away from him?"

"No, that Rom's own body is responsible for drying it up."

Quark stared hard at her, studying her a moment. "That's not possible."

"Dr. Tal is one of the finest doctors on Ferenginar."

"I'm not questioning his abilities, I just— Are you sure there aren't any leads?"

"The investigation has started since I made the call to the doctor," said Leeta. "I don't know the status. You'll have to ask the investigator."

"Who is the investigator?" asked Quark darkly.

"Investigator Bogal. He investigated for us with the other assassination attempts before."

"Never met him."

"Well, he was also private investigator for Zek."

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything."

Leeta crossed her arms now staunchly. "You're worse than Rom. He's on your mother's pay roll. I think you can trust him."

Quark held out his hands and rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay. I'm just making sure."

Leeta lowered her eyes and rubbed her hands together. "Except that if Rom is going to be… out of commission, you'll have to stand in as acting Nagus."

Suddenly Quark stiffened. Leeta watched as his eyes leapt in fright.

"Why me?"

"Rom wanted you to substitute for him if anything went wrong. It's already been approved by the council," said Leeta. "Didn't he tell you? He told Nog, apparently."

Again Quark paused, and eyed his sister-in-law with a cock of his head. "What's Nog have to do with this?"

"Nog already said he wants to talk with you."

"As nephew or…" Quark winced, "lieutenant commander?"

"Lieutenant commander."

"Oh. Well, alright then. Business as usual."