Notes:
Hello again. I hope y'all enjoy this latest update! It's still going to be a long haul, but I've been having fun getting deeper into this story, and the next chapter is already in the works. If you like the story, please leave a comment! I'd love to know if anyone is enjoying this one, as I've been working hard on it and I care about this story a lot.
Soft monitor chirps and the movements of others startled Kira awake. Her eyes snapped open, hand instinctively reaching for her phaser.
Who was in her quarters?
When she stretched further to her right, toward where her nightstand and the hidden weapon should be, she felt a strange sensation in her abdomen. She could barely twist herself to reach for the phaser, as if she'd gorged herself on all of Bajor's richest delicacies to the point of a distended heaviness settling inside her. Her motion was awkward, ungainly even, and her muscles protested the movement. Why did she feel so sore?
She blinked, still attempting to clear the sleep from her brain and her eyes. The lights above her head weren't helping. They were excessively bright, and she couldn't remember the illumination in her quarters ever being quite so aggressive. As she tried to recall the events of the night before, wondering if she might have had too much to drink, she decided her first task should be to lower the lights.
"Major, I'm glad to see you're awake."
The sound of Bashir's voice brought reality back within her grasp, and she realized she was in the infirmary. When she attempted to sit up, she remembered why. Yesterday's events came back to her then, and she groaned, sinking back into the bed. She rested her hand on her belly, and tried not to spend too much time thinking about the baby inside. Her persistent disbelief at the change was becoming redundant, and she was growing bored with her own reactions. She took a deep breath and tried again to sit up.
"What's got your heart rate up so high?" Bashir spoke again. Now that she had wrangled herself into a seated position, she saw he was standing next to her, frowning at a tricorder in his hands.
"I was confused when I first woke up, didn't recognize where I was for a second." She pushed her sleep-mussed hair back away from her face, not yet awake enough to be properly embarrassed about admitting to Bashir that she had panicked when she didn't know where she was. "I thought there were people in my quarters."
"Ah. Happens all the time." He nodded in understanding and the concern evaporated from his expression. He continued to observe the tricorder for another minute or so, diligently watching her vital signs until he seemed satisfied with the numbers appearing to him. "Your heart rate is starting to calm down. Good."
Kira hummed in agreement, only half listening. She smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she met with the foul taste of her own morning breath, and wrinkled her nose in disgust. She hadn't had a chance to brush her teeth the night before. Or to take a shower. The layers of grime were beginning to feel like a snake skin she urgently wanted to shed, itchy and out of place.
"How are you feeling this morning?"
Bashir's question interrupted her thoughts again, and she decided she was grateful. She had no need to catalogue just how much filth was clinging to her person; she only wanted to concentrate on removing all of said filth. With this central in her mind, she returned Bashir's eye contact and answered honestly. "Disgusting."
He paused for a moment, regarding her with curiosity. Her response was probably not what he had expected, but she thought she saw a gleam of amusement in his eyes as he asked, "Is that your assessment of your medical status?"
"It's my assessment of my hygiene status," Kira grumbled. Her irritation was mounting the longer she sat there with sweat and dirt and only the prophets knew what else caked onto her skin. "When can I get out of here? I feel like I'm going to need the whole day to scrub a week's worth of rainforest and shuttle crashes off of myself."
The gleam in Bashir's eyes was more conspicuous now, colored by a tinge of mischief. "You are smelling a bit ripe."
She wasn't sure why the statement made her feel indignant. Ripe was generous, but still she narrowed her eyes at Bashir and said, "Is that how you get your patients to trust you? Telling them they stink?"
He didn't answer her, just laughed lightly and gave her a good-natured smile. "The sooner we talk about how you're feeling today, the sooner I can make my decision on whether or not you're ready to be released."
She rolled her eyes, but gave up quickly on her offense; she couldn't deny what he'd said anyway. She smelled stronger than a Bolian bathroom and she knew it. So, she dropped the line of conversation in grudging favor of discussing her physical well-being. "I'm still sore. I also feel pretty stiff, and I must have slept for, what, twelve hours?"
"Fourteen, actually."
She blew out a loud breath, a gesture of mild surprise as she considered what the hour must be if she'd been asleep for so long. She couldn't have cared less about the time last night when sleep was calling to her, but she would have hoped that so many hours asleep would have left her feeling more rested. "I'm still exhausted."
"That's not surprising. You've been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours. Your body is reconciling several physical traumas, on top of adjusting to the pregnancy." Bashir watched her with kind eyes as he spoke. When she only murmured a noncommittal agreement in response, he mercifully didn't press the issue. Instead, he asked, "Did you sleep well at least?"
"I think those hot flashes you mentioned must have kicked in because I remember waking up more than once sweating."
He nodded, typing notes into the padd in his hand. "Hopefully that will subside soon. Any pain other than being sore?"
"I still have a bit of a headache," she admitted.
"How bad is the pain from one to ten?"
"I don't know," Kira grumbled. She hated the pain rating questions; she never felt she knew how to answer accurately. "A four?"
Again he nodded, and when he didn't ask for further information on her head, she assumed that the pain probably wasn't something to be worried about. She had driven her skull into a mass of dense metal only a short time ago, after all. The probing questions did not end on the topic of her headache, however.
"How bad is the soreness? Where is it worst?"
"My lower back and my stomach." As she answered, Kira's hand came up to absently rub at her swollen abdomen.
Bashir tracked the movement with his eyes and asked, "Does it feel like that soreness is coming from the muscles, or deeper?"
She shrugged. "I think the muscles, but it's hard to tell. It's still a cramping pain with general achiness. Everything kind of hurts."
The sympathetic smile that he offered was likely reflexive, but she appreciated his effort to quickly return to a neutral expression. He set his general tricorder down and turned away from her, looking for something.
"Definitely to be expected, but let's do a quick uterine scan just to be on the safe side."
Kira sighed, and rubbed at her temple. "Yeah, alright. Probably a good idea."
He observed her quietly for a moment as he fished another scanner out from one of the drawers of a medical cabinet, evidently the source of his previous search. "I know this is all…" he paused, looking for an appropriate description, or perhaps even just words of comfort. Ultimately, he relented. He aimed the now located scanning device in his hand towards her lower abdomen, tinkering with some of the settings, and admitted, "Well I suppose I don't know. Not from the emotional standpoint at least."
She swallowed hard. He definitely didn't know. She didn't really know either, and now was not the time to dig into that question. She offered him a teasing smirk as she spoke with faux concern, "Tell me you at least know from the medical standpoint."
He smiled easily, not minding her deflection, or the ribbing, in the least. Nodding, he studied the scanner in his hands for a moment longer then said, "This all looks perfectly normal to me, given the circumstances. Nothing to worry about, despite the discomfort you're experiencing being unpleasant, I have no doubt." He looked up from the scanner and, to her relief, didn't reach for any others. "But your vitals are stable, they have been all night with no incident, and so have the baby's."
The news caused Kira to perk up instantly, and she hefted herself off the edge of the biobed to stand on her feet again. "So I'm good to go?"
"Yes and no." He had watched her movement, and she felt a flare of annoyance tick upwards inside her when she realized he was gearing himself up to tell her something she probably didn't want to hear. Sure enough, when he continued, he told her, "You're free to leave the infirmary, but I want you to take the day off today and rest in your quarters."
She shook her head with vehemence and waved her hand dismissively as she turned away from him to begin looking for her comm badge and her shoes. "I have way too much work to do for that."
"I assumed you'd say as much, but this time around it isn't optional. I've already contacted Sisko. You're off duty today, and that's an order from the captain."
She whipped her head around as fast as her injuries would allow, ignoring the resulting wince of pain and pinned him with an incredulous glare. Words carried by a scoff, she said, "You went over my head?"
"Yes, I did." Before she could respond again, he continued, unintimidated. "And I'm also only clearing you for restricted duty for the next week."
She narrowed her eyes and regarded him dangerously. "Let me guess, that's an order from Sisko too."
He rubbed at his brow and temple, and if she derived a little satisfaction in seeing his frustration, she decided that was only fair.
"It's temporary, Kira." Bashir sighed, pulling his hand away from his forehead. "We need to keep a close eye on you and the baby both to make sure you're adjusting well. This isn't the first time this procedure has been done, but it's not exactly routine either. We have to tread carefully at first. And for you, that means taking it easy over the next week so that your body can heal and continue adapting."
She maintained her glare, grinding her back teeth, but she knew she could do little to countermand Sisko's orders. She also knew she had sworn to do whatever she could to protect the baby; she just hadn't realized the amount of time she'd have to spend taking care of herself in order to do so. Deep in her mind, though, she was grateful for an extra day to rest. Her body was aching, and she was still so exhausted. Rather than admitting this, or giving Bashir the satisfaction of verbally acquiescing to the order, she forced her jaw to unclench and changed the direction of the conversation entirely.
"How's Keiko?"
Whether he had some insight into Kira's thoughts or was simply seizing the opportunity to drop the argument, Bashir took the switch of topic in stride. "She's doing alright, all things considered. I released her to her quarters already."
"Really? When?"
"Not too long ago, about an hour before you woke up."
At the thought of any time frame, Kira remembered she still had no idea what the hour was. "What time is it now?"
"Just after 10:00. Actually, she wanted me to tell you that she'd really love it if you could stop by, if you're feeling up to it. I recommend waiting until tomorrow; you both need to rest today."
Kira nodded, and ran her fingers through her hair. "Is it alright if I clean up a little here first? I'd rather not walk through the whole station in infirmary pajamas with morning breath."
Bashir chuckled as he said, "Of course," then stepped aside to gesture to a door around the corner. He turned around, presumably back to whatever he had been doing before she had woken up, and she moved past him toward the indicated door.
After only a couple steps, she heard him exclaim, "Oh! Kira, wait." When she swiveled to face him, he continued. "Before I forget, take this."
He handed her a slip of paper with a name written in neat print. "She's the head obstetrician of the medical department. I'll admit, I'm out of my depth on this one. You'll need someone who has experience in complicated obstetric cases to manage your care. And, who isn't a friend."
He'd added the last part with a conspiratorial smile, and Kira had to admit she was thankful for the option and the contact, as well as his easy-going demeanor in presenting her with the choice to switch her care to someone else. She remembered Bashir mentioning the previous night that he would refer her to an obstetrician, but she'd forgotten after sleeping for so long. Now she didn't have to worry about offending him by asking for a different doctor herself.
She accepted the paper and nodded. "Thank you. I don't mean to be rude, but I think I will contact her. Nothing against you of course."
"Of course." There was a glimmer in his eyes, a hint of mischief shining through. He was teasing her, and she rolled her eyes at him as he said, "Don't worry, I completely understand. It's not personal for me, but it is for you, and being treated by a friend is often a conflict of interest. You need to be comfortable with the doctor taking care of you. Dr. Kim is a wonderful physician, and she's been on this station for long enough to have several years experience with Bajoran obstetrics as well. You're in capable hands."
Kira smiled her thanks, and Bashir dipped his chin in response then returned once more to his work.
She stepped inside the washroom and, thankfully, there was a replicator to provide her with a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a washcloth. She sealed the door to the small room with a privacy lock, and set about cleaning herself up enough to be able to walk to her quarters without offending everyone she walked past with her stench. When she felt a little less like death warmed over and could smell her own armpit without flinching, she deemed herself presentable enough.
Turning back to the replicator, she keyed in the commands for a clean uniform and began drawing the clothes on her body. She didn't get far and grumbled at the realization of her mistake. Her preset specifications had yielded the same sized uniform she'd worn every day for the past five years, fit to her slender, pre-pregnancy body. Now, she couldn't even get the pants all the way over her hips, let alone button them.
Grunting in frustration and exertion, she tugged the pants off and returned to the replicator once again. She didn't know what her new measurements were yet, so reprogramming her uniform wouldn't have been an option even if she'd had the energy at that point to do so. Instead, she keyed in commands to generate a long, loose-fitting shirt and a pair of simple, black pants with an elastic waistband, opting for something a couple of sizes larger than she would normally wear. The fabric hung loosely over her legs but fit snugly over her hips and belly as she pulled the pants on. At least she could be confident they wouldn't fall around her ankles as she walked through the station. That was good enough for the time being.
She tucked the piece of paper with Dr. Kim's information into the pocket of her pants for safekeeping and reemerged from the bathroom. As she passed Bashir on her way to the infirmary exit, she gave him a quick pat on the forearm and said, "Thanks again."
He nodded with a bright smile, and in the next breath she was stepping into the hallway outside the infirmary, rejoining the bustle of the station. She walked steadily through the winding paths of corridors, occasionally picking her way through various groups of people and at other times having a small section of the halls to herself. To her great relief, there were so many people living on the station that there were almost just as many who were completely uninterested in her sudden pregnancy as there were people who were openly staring at and talking about DS9's first officer. At the very least, not every single eye in any area she walked through was drawn to her. For now, she could settle for half, and hopefully the rest of the gawkers and gossipers would lose interest in short order. Her impromptu surrogacy would be old news soon enough, forgotten as soon as another piece of enticing gossip surfaced.
Despite the boost she'd felt at being released from sickbay, her energy flagged before long and her pace grew slower. When she finally reached the habitat ring, she wanted nothing more than to transport directly to her quarters. Even the short walk from the turbolift seemed exhausting.
As the door to Kira's quarters finally slid shut behind her, some of the past two days' tension diffused from her muscles. The familiarity of her home embraced her, offering comfort. She surveyed the rooms around her, reacquainting herself with being in her own home and trying to shake the strange sensation of returning home that always accompanied a prolonged time away. She hadn't realized how much she'd craved being in her own space until she stepped inside and breathed in the welcoming scent of the unlit but still fragrant incense she kept near her meditation altar.
When she stepped a little further into her quarters, she noticed something out of place in the small sitting area right inside the door. Her eyes were drawn immediately to a stasis container that offered a tantalizing glimpse of a hearty meal beneath a translucent lid. Affixed to the top of the container was a small holochip, no doubt with a message to be played. Though she desperately wanted to climb in the shower, she had a sneaking suspicion who had left the food and she redirected her task priority to investigating her hunch. With a few more trudging steps, she approached the table and tapped the holochip to activate the message.
An image of Dax sprung to holographic life from the chip, miniature in dimension but no less effective in capturing her mischievous smile. Hunch confirmed, she couldn't stop her own smile from forming. The baby kicked her kidney in the next second, and some of her cheer faded as residual uterine cramping seized her lower abdomen in response to the active fetus. Brow furrowed in annoyance and rubbing at the sore muscles of her swollen belly, Kira tapped the holochip three times to send the message back to the beginning. She had missed whatever holo-Dax had said due to the painful interruption. Message restarted, Kira was able to pay closer attention this time.
"I commed Julian just now to ask if you were awake for a visit, and he told me he'd released you. Would have been nice to have heard that from you myself." Holo-Dax winked, and Kira wondered if this woman would ever stop confusing her. Why would Dax care if Kira was delayed in remembering to check in with her? Surely she was busy in the main operations center with her duty shift. Kira had assumed she would hear from her friend at the end of the alpha shift, if at all that afternoon. Nevertheless, holo-Dax continued, none too perturbed by Kira's apparent transgression. "I'm taking my responsibility to feed you seriously. You heard the doctor- no more forgetting to eat. I don't know how you make it through shifts on just raktajino sometimes. But here's your fair warning, I'm going to be on your case to get proper meals. Even more than usual. Who knows, maybe the habit will even stick."
Kira rolled her eyes at holo-Dax's playful teasing. She wasn't sure if she was going to survive Dax's new self-assigned responsibility without snapping at her friend from time to time; she would have to pray to the prophets for patience. Dax was looking out for her after all, and she knew she'd be lying if she said she'd always been diligent at taking care of herself. With the O'Briens' son to mind after, maybe she could benefit from some extra cajoling. The baby certainly would, but she knew herself well enough to know that this fact wouldn't stop her occasional irritation at being watched over in such a manner. Dax's message signed off by bidding her enjoy her food, topped off with one last radiant smile - whether for Kira's benefit or the holo-imager's, she didn't know.
Holo-Dax flickered away as the message ended, and Kira set the chip down on her table next to the stasis container and finally acknowledged her growling stomach. She lifted the lid, and various delectable scents wafted up to her. Before her was a platter of bread, fruits, jam, and what appeared to be delicate slices of kipar - cured meat from a Bajoran peat hog. The rumbling of her stomach grew louder, demanding its presence be felt, and she reached for a piece of moba fruit to quell the sensation. The sweet, tangy juice of the fruit coated her tongue, bringing her back to the heat of Dakhur Province and summers spent picking ripe moba from trees. They were indigenous to the region and grew like weeds. Marching between cave hideouts and safehouses during the Occupation, moba was almost always a guaranteed find. She'd frequently used the fruit to quench her thirst as much as for food.
Her stomach continued to protest its emptiness, drawing her from her remembrance and back to the present moment. Now that she'd offered herself a taste of food, her body was all the more insistent in making clear the clawing hunger signals. She snatched a piece of the kipar and another bite of moba, consuming them quickly, then followed them with a slice of mapa bread. Once she'd satisfied the immediate urge and taken the edge off of her hunger, she brushed the crumbs from her hands on her pants and reached up to tap her com-badge.
"Major Kira to Commander Dax."
The response was immediate. "You're welcome."
"How do you know I wasn't calling to reprimand you for breaking and entering?"
"Because you like me too much to reprimand me."
Kira scoffed, refusing to dignify the presumptuous comment with further response. She would reprimand Dax if she really needed to. The threshold for determining that necessity may be a little less stringent than was entirely fair, but still, the threshold existed. She was second in command to the whole station; allowing one officer to get away with anything just wasn't possible in her job description, and Dax knew this as well as she did. And though Dax was truly incorrigible at times, the present moment being no exception, a smirk still turned up the corners of her mouth.
"Well, criminal activity aside, I do appreciate the meal. Thank you."
"You're welcome." When Dax repeated the words this time, there was no playful arrogance like before. Her inflection was gentle and soft spoken, and for some reason the sincerity left Kira at an awkward loss for words. Dax didn't comment, having much more social tact than Kira often possessed. Instead, she said, "I'll leave you be, but I thought I could stop by later, if that's alright?"
Kira stifled the urge to sigh. Being checked up on was going to be her new norm, and she would have to get used to the resulting frustration. Still, though, confusion pulled at her mind. The O'Briens wanting to check in on the baby was to be expected, but she didn't know why Dax was so concerned for her, so intent on looking after her.
In truth, Dax rarely made sense to her, but regardless she was grateful for their friendship and she acquiesced to the visit that evening.
Hungry as she was, she couldn't stand to deal with the filth for a second longer. With great reluctance, she forced herself to put the lid to the stasis container back over the food and made her way to the bathroom.
Peeling off her clothes felt like removing ten pounds of dirt even though they were newly replicated that morning. As she turned to step in the shower, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Fully nude, the changed lines of her body shape grabbed her attention anew. She sucked in a sharp breath and moved closer to the mirror. Her hands came up to cradle the baby bump, examining the form of her abdomen and hips. Though difficult to tell by visual alone, her hips appeared to have widened a bit as well. This was hardly surprising given her earlier struggle with her uniform pants and the general circumstance she'd found herself in, and yet she stared at her reflection, feeling dumbfounded once more.
She noticed a few more of the small, silvery lines where her body had outgrown her skin adorning her hips then she'd had before. She would leave those be; they weren't worth the effort of attempting to remove them. They were far more subtle than the dark purple marks that had scrawled down her stomach from the transfer anyway.
Turning to inspect her profile proved to be bizarre in an entirely new way. For the most part, the rest of her body remained unchanged. Her frame was the same, petite and thin with wiry muscle and compact power evident beneath the surface. In stark contrast, the baby protruded her abdomen outward. Discordant, given the lack of change everywhere else. She continued to stare, eyes roaming over all of the smallest changes she was still finding, but she was far too tired to maintain focused attention for much longer.
The baby shifted around, kicking at her ribs, waking her from the upright, dozing trance that she'd drifted into. For the first time she saw the vague movement of the baby from inside her, squirming the outline of her naked abdomen, and she shivered at the parasitic imagery that the visual invoked. She turned from the mirror then, swallowing over the sudden bile creeping into the back of her throat.
At long last, she stepped into the shower. She set the hydrothermals as high as they would go and sucked in a hissing breath as the hot water ran over skin made sensitive by days of unwashed sweat, dirt, and grime. She leaned against one wall of the shower, closing her eyes, soaking in the heat and steam, luxuriating in the long-awaited shower spray as much as hoping to ease some of the aches from her body. Eventually, she set to washing herself, scrubbing every inch at least twice, and lingered again for a few moments after she was clean. She would have stayed even longer if she weren't still ready to eat her own hand for hunger.
Thirty minutes and a healthy amount of soap later, she stepped out of the shower and found herself confronted with the same issue she'd had earlier that morning. She'd need to figure out her new replicator measurements at some point, but a visit to the tailor was not happening until another day. She had no energy to haul herself down to the promenade today, let alone deal with Garak. So, she repeated the same choices she'd made earlier and redressed in the loose-fitting, simple clothes. They were comfortable enough, and that was all she cared about at the moment.
Her stomach growled fiercely again on the next breath, and she wasted no more time idling in the bathroom. She turned her head away from the mirror this time as she passed by, uninterested in overanalyzing the dramatic changes once more. In quick steps, she exited the bathroom and made her way over to the couch where she lifted the lid from the stasis container again.
She wasn't sure where to start. Dax had observed her food preferences over the years more than Kira had realized and she had been generous in the heaping pile of different options that she had put together. Everything on the platter was something she enjoyed thoroughly and most of the food was Bajoran in origin. She decided not to overthink the matter of where to start and reached for the closest food to her hand, dried freelia root. As she chewed off a large piece, she smiled to herself, thinking how her friend had somehow known that she would appreciate the comforts of home in this moment.
The food was gone in short order, tucked away with a ravenous appetite she hadn't known since long marches through Dakhur hills, sweating through her clothing and ready to claw her own tongue out from thirst. She blinked away the memory though, uninterested in dwelling on things past. The moba fruit had already sent her reminiscing earlier, and one trip into her past was one too many for the day.
Here and now, the deep-set burning of her eyelids claimed top priority. She spared a brief thought at the ridiculousness of feeling so tired after only a few hours awake following fourteen hours of sleep, then pushed the thought away just as fiercely as the previous one.
The fatigue that overtook her with renewed vigor made her limbs heavy and her head dull, not affording her even the energy to walk to her bed. Instead, she stretched out on her couch, grabbed the soft knit blanket from the back, and burrowed as deeply into the cushions as she could. Her eyes drooped shut in just a moment, and she succumbed to sleep in the next.
She wasn't sure how long she had been out when she heard the chime of her front door, jolting her awake. Her nap had likely been interrupted in the middle of a sleep cycle, judging by the grogginess she felt as she pushed herself into a seated position once more. Vague memories of feeling feverish and the sticky sweat stuck to her shirt told her she'd had more hot flashes and she groaned at the unpleasant sensation.
Aside from the sweating, she had slept soundly, of that she was sure. She'd learned years ago to take her sleep whenever and wherever she could, as swiftly as possible. She could wake just as quickly; being on high alert even in sleep had been even more of a necessity. While she enjoyed the benefits of sleep coming easily, she'd found the flip side of the coin to be a difficult habit to shake, remaining a light sleeper long past the days of cave-hopping to avoid Cardassian patrols.
The door chimed again, reminding her why she was awake in the first place. She stood, grimacing at the extra effort required, and made her way to the door. As she walked, she called to the computer and requested the time.
14:47. She grimaced again. The day was more than half gone and all she had done was sleep.
Approaching the door, she gave permission to enter, and O'Brien was revealed behind the swish of the opening door. She knew she shouldn't be surprised, but momentary confusion surfaced in her mind and she stared blankly at O'Brien before gesturing him inside.
If possible, he appeared almost as exhausted as she felt. Heavy bags sat under his eyes and his shoulders slumped under the yellow of his engineer's uniform. He'd been through as much of an emotional rollercoaster as she and Keiko had over the past day, she supposed, and now he was taking care of both Molly and his injured wife on his own.
He offered her a smile, however, and followed her as she led them both to the sitting room. Her blanket was rumpled over cushions that still held the indent of her recent occupancy, and the empty container of food showed off the crumbs of her earlier meal. Kira couldn't bring herself to care about the mess or the doubtless disheveled state of her own appearance. If O'Brien was about to get to know her much more closely than she had ever planned, they may as well start now.
She motioned an invitation for him to sit as she asked, "Anything to eat? Drink?"
"Coffee would be lovely, actually." He perked up at the prospect of caffeine, as if the mere thought restored some of his energy.
Nodding and stifling a yawn, Kira turned to the replicator across the room and requested two cups of coffee. She preferred raktajino to human coffee, but she didn't have the energy to be different in that moment.
When she turned around with two cups in hand, she was met with an alarmed look on O'Brien's face. He was half standing from the chair he had sat down in only moments before and appeared deeply concerned, though no words came out of his mouth.
She stopped, unsure what the problem could be, and narrowed her eyes in confused irritation. She had little patience for the tense situation, and with measured calmness, she asked, "What?"
She made sure to draw the word out, emphasizing O'Brien's strange, rude behavior with the length of the single syllable and the tone of her voice.
This snapped him from silent, fidgety staring and in a quiet rush he said, "You're not going to drink that are you?"
Kira didn't drop the pointed look she was giving him, and replied, "I was planning to."
"But you can't have caffeine!" O'Brien blurted out.
She blinked. Low and dangerous, she said "Excuse me?"
He gestured toward Kira's belly and spluttered, "The baby! You're not supposed to drink coffee."
The premise was ridiculous, and she could feel the indignant flare of her nose ridges signaling her anger at the presumption that he could tell her what to do or not do. Seething now and incredulous at his audacity, her voice was growing louder. "Says who?"
"Doctors." He matched her rising anger and topped his words off with an arrogance that ignited Kira's rage even more.
"Well," she bit out, "those are human doctors with human patients. No Bajoran doctor has ever said anything to me about pregnancy and caffeine." She chose not to mention that her conversations with Bajoran doctors were few and far between, and conversations with any doctor about pregnancy outside of the past twenty-four hours were non-existent.
He floundered for a moment, but pressed further by saying, "Well, but, this is a human baby." He took a step closer when Kira didn't back down, expression softening, and asked, "Please, can we at least ask Bashir about it before you drink any? If he clears it, I'll shut up about it, I promise."
"I don't need Bashir's clearance to do anything," Kira bit out. "And he's transferring my case to an obstetrician anyways."
O'Brien blinked and dropped his impassioned plea for however brief a moment. "Oh. Who?"
Kira ground her teeth, narrowing her eyes at him. "Kim."
"I hear she's good."
His reply was earnest, but Kira wasn't foolish enough to believe he had set aside the coffee argument for good. She gave him a curt nod and said, "So do I."
As predicted, the pleading look in his eyes returned only a short second later. "So, can we at least ask her? Please?"
Kira continued to stare O'Brien down for a moment longer, but eventually she relented. She supposed the question was worth investigating; if caffeine would hurt the human baby in her body then she'd have to accept that she couldn't have any for the time being. And that O'Brien was right, which bothered her more in that moment than surrendering the coffee. Worse, she'd given him the ammunition to prove his point by acknowledging Dr. Kim's rumored reputation. She rolled her eyes for good measure but dumped her coffee back into the replicator to be recycled without a word.
"Thank you, Kira. Truly, thank you."
"Yeah, whatever." She grumbled.
She made no offer to reheat his coffee before she handed the mug to him, hoping that the coffee had gone cold during their standoff. She dropped herself heavily back onto the couch, resting her head on the back pillows, while O'Brien loitered for a moment where he stood. If he was waiting for an invitation to sit again, he would have to provide himself his own. He must have realized this after a moment and he returned to his previous seat. He'd relaxed somewhat but he still fidgeted, staring into his cup and not knowing what to say other than to clear his throat and sip too loudly on his coffee.
With their argument about the coffee still irritating her, a thought occurred to Kira and she lifted her head to look O'Brien in the eye. "Bashir put me on restricted duty for a week. Did you have something to do with that?"
O'Brien huffed, shaking his head. "No, I didn't. But I agree with him."
Kira rolled her eyes again but didn't comment. She sat back in her seat, pressed into the cushions of the couch, and didn't bother holding back the yawn that came forth.
"Tired?"
"Oh, just a little." Her response was laden with sarcasm, but there was no real bite to her words. She did her best to let the rest of her annoyance with O'Brien fade out on the tired sigh she let out. He was stressed too and just trying to look after his kid.
O'Brien chuckled into what was left of his coffee and swiped his hand across his face as he tried to fight back his own yawn. Tired was an understatement. He tapped his fingertips against his mug for a few moments, then looked up to meet Kira's eye level with genuine concern.
"How are you feeling, really?"
Maybe it was the exhaustion and the side effects of yesterday's copious medications still coursing through her, but the earnesty in his eyes and voice got to Kira. She gave him as honest an answer as she could. "Besides tired? Sore, and kind of overwhelmed. This is … a lot."
"If it's a lot for me, I can't even imagine what it must feel like on your end."
She smirked and tipped her head in acknowledgement. "And you?"
"Besides tired and overwhelmed?" He quipped, and she offered another smirk in response.
As O'Brien finished the last of his coffee, Kira yawned again. He stood and moved to the replicator to recycle his cup. For a moment he looked lost without something to do with his hands but he quickly recovered, determined as he walked back over to Kira. He sat beside her on the couch, catching her off guard, and said, "Kira. I don't even know where to begin, but Keiko and I, we're just so grateful. We don't know how to thank you enough for what you're doing."
She shifted, uncomfortable with the sincerity of the moment, and mumbled, "Yeah, well. You're welcome."
Neither of them knew where to go from there, and the awkward silence stretched out around them again. Kira's eyes had begun to burn again, fighting against the heavy droop, and she was relieved when O'Brien stood and said, "Well, I should probably get back to Keiko and Molly. I'll come by again tomorrow?"
"I was actually going to come visit you. Bashir said Keiko wanted me to come by." She rubbed at her belly and added, "I'm sure she wants to see the baby's okay with her own eyes."
"She does, very much. Well, then we'll see you tomorrow at our place."
Kira nodded in agreement and started to stand as well so she could walk O'Brien to the door, but he insisted she not get up on his account. He stood still for another moment, wordless, before moving to the door. Before he reached the door he turned back to her and asked, "Is there anything I can get you? Food? Something to drink? Are you comfortable enough?"
She held back on her impulse to say that she would love to have the coffee he denied her earlier. Instead, she just shook her head and replied, "I'm as comfortable as I'm going to get for the moment. Your kid is currently beating on my rib cage."
O'Brien rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish look. "Sorry about that."
She shrugged. "At least he's letting us know he's okay."
He let out a heavy sigh as he said, "Thank god for that."
He gave her another smile and turned back to the door. As the door wooshed open, he let out a small sound of surprise. He looked over his shoulder to Kira and said, "You have another visitor. Are you up for it?"
Kira craned her neck, peering over O'Brien's shape to make out the identity of this guest before deciding. She caught the teal shoulders of a science officer's uniform, dark hair, and the telltale spotted pattern of Trill markings. At the same moment, she heard Dax's voice telling O'Brien to lighten up. She smiled to herself, knowing her friend would prickle at the idea of anyone other than Kira granting or denying her entrance to Kira's quarters.
"Dax, that's you, yeah?" She called.
"Yeah it's me. Tell O'Brien to move, he's weirding me out."
O'Brien shuffled out of Dax's way after another moment of hesitation. Dax pursed her lips, throwing a brief, irritated glance at O'Brien as she moved inside. She looked to Kira, still curled up into one corner of her couch, and asked, "Are you up for a visit though?"
Kira offered her a genuine smile and said, "Sure."
She was tired, maybe she'd regret the choice, but even despite her earlier frustration at Dax and everyone's insistence on checking on her, she found herself willing to ignore her fatigue for the time being rather than tell Dax to leave.
O'Brien stepped to the doorway again, "Let me know if you need anything, yeah?"
She thanked him, and he slipped out the door.
Dax moved to the couch and without hesitation took up the same spot that O'Brien had just vacated. She folded her leg under herself and turned her body toward Kira. "What was the whole bouncer routine about?"
Kira yawned again, settling herself further into the couch. "Who knows."
Dax relaxed more as well. "When Audrid was pregnant, her husband was constantly worrying. He fussed over her relentlessly" She rolled her eyes, then punctuated the point with a mischievous smirk and the simple comment, "Men."
Kira chuckled, but the idea of putting up with O'Brien's overbearing behavior for the next five to six months made her feel more exhausted than anything else that afternoon. She rubbed her eyes and forehead, then swiped her hand through her already disheveled hair. Gesturing to the rumpled blanket shoved into the opposite end of the couch, she said, "Could you hand that blanket to me?"
Dax reached for the throw blanket that Kira had pointed to and draped the soft fabric over Kira's legs. She kept one corner of the blanket clutched in her hand, though, and asked, "Mind sharing? I'm chilly."
"You're always chilly."
"Even more reason to share." She wormed her feet under the blanket, wedging them under Kira's legs as well.
Kira grumbled at the intrusion, but did nothing to push Dax away. "Damn, why are your feet always so cold?"
Unfazed with Kira's grumpy comment, Dax shrugged. "It's a Trill thing. We run cold, well for the station's environment. And you're always so warm." She wiggled her toes against Kira's calves for emphasis.
"Well, I guess it's a Bajoran thing."
Dax hummed, trying to steal even more of the blanket to pull over her knees. "The evolutionary gift of good circulation."
"Some gift," Kira scoffed. "That circulation is how I got myself stuck in this position."
"What do you mean?"
"The baby." Kira brought her hands over her belly as she spoke, a subconscious emphasis to the point. "Bashir said that the reason why it's too risky to transfer the baby back to Keiko is because the vascular connections to the baby and placenta are too dense. Because I'm Bajoran."
Dax observed her quietly for a moment, then asked, "Do you regret it?"
Kira paused as well before answering. Ultimately, however, she said the same thing she'd concluded for herself in her own previous considerations of the question. "No. I think I'm in over my head, that's for damn sure, but I'd do the same thing if I had it to do again." In a quieter voice, she added, "I had to do something."
Reaching forward, Dax squeezed her hand. Her fingers were cold as well, but Kira had grown accustomed to the often chilled touch of Dax's gentle affection. "For what it's worth, I think what you're doing is amazing."
Kira fought the urge to squirm, finding herself confronted yet again with a friend's deep sincerity in such a short period of time. "Yeah, well, let's see how I do over the next few months. I might not be quite so amazing then."
Dax squeezed her hand again but mercifully relaxed her grip soon after and leaned back into her side of the couch. She wiggled her toes again and stretched her arms over her head, turning to both sides to stretch her back as well. Her easy going nature relaxed the environment and she replied, "Nah, pregnancy is tough for everyone. Doesn't matter how crabby you get, this is still very selfless of you."
"I guess," Kira said over another yawn.
Dax didn't push the matter, and Kira appreciated her friend's tact. She also envied Dax's social skills as well; her own lacked the same finesse. They shared a companionable silence for a few moments. Dax rested her head against the back cushions of the couch, and Kira decided to follow suit and slumped against her pillow even more.
After a little while spent with both women half dozing, something occurred to Kira. With no preamble, she picked up her head and asked, "What's a bouncer?"
"You know, like the people who let you into clubs and kick you out if you're causing trouble. Is the translator messing up the Bajoran word?"
"I…don't even know if there is a Bajoran word for that. I mean, there probably is. I'm sure there was a night life in the cities before the Occupation. It was gone long before I was born though."
"I'll take you to my favorite club on the holodeck." She nudged Kira's legs with her feet, a playful grin on her face. "Or we can go visit Trill together and I'll take you there for real."
Laughing, Kira snaked her arm over her belly and rubbed the bump pointedly as she replied, "That might have to wait a while."
Dax waved off the comment immediately. "Being pregnant doesn't mean you can't have fun."
"We'll see."
Dax laughed, her easy smile unperturbed, but she let this matter rest as well. She moved instead to stand from the couch, extricating herself from the large portion of the blanket she'd slowly inched over herself. "What do you want to eat for dinner?"
"You're really not kidding about this are you?"
"Nope." Dax smirked and turned to face Kira. She continued walking, backwards, to the replicator as she spoke. "Might as well indulge me, or I'll just have to pick something for you again."
Kira took her opportunity to grab the blanket, pulling the previously stolen fabric over herself and tucking her feet under the edges to block Dax out when she returned to the sofa. She mused on the idea of getting a second blanket for the couch if Dax was going to be over more frequently to babysit her appetite. Unable to think of any particular food she wanted, she shrugged and said, "Go for it then. I'm too tired to think of anything anyway."
"Mystery meat it is!"
Kira let out a sharp, amused scoff at Dax's enthusiasm. She couldn't stop the smile that Dax's antics brought to her face, even as she had to kick the recently reclaimed blanket off in frustration as another wave of heat flashed through her hormone-saturated body. With Dax busy concocting some surprise meal in the other room, she didn't bother trying to contain her wide grin. She dropped her head back to the cushions and rested her eyes, listening to the sounds of Dax tinkering with the replicator, her grin still firmly in place.