AN: This story will have a few little parts. It's just for fun, and it's not part of my longer/larger universe.

I own nothing from Star Trek.

I hope you enjoy! If you do, please do let me know!

111

Odo's combadge had been going off for nearly the last hour, but in the past few minutes, the amount of calls he was getting from all over the station was truly staggering. He didn't even know where to begin to address the issues or to send other members of his security team to help get things under control.

It seemed as though, all over the station, small conflicts and disagreements had broken out everywhere. At first, there had simply been squabbles that he'd been called to handle before they could escalate, lest one freighter pilot end up having a much larger fight with another. From there, things had seemed to slowly escalate.

Odo was trying to organize and prioritize the latest batch of scattered and seemingly unrelated complaints when he got a call from Commander Sisko.

"Odo—I need you to come to Quark's immediately."

"I'm sorry, Commander—can it wait? I've got disturbances all over the station right now, and I'm having to prioritize, to say the least."

"I may have found the root cause of those disturbances," Sisko said.

"I beg your pardon?" Odo responded. "What has Quark done now?"

"Not Quark, necessarily," Sisko said. "Just come as soon as you can, and I think you may be able to get things under control."

"I'll be right there," Odo said. "Odo out."

He paused only a few minutes to send some of his people to the places where he thought they might do the most good, and then he headed to Quark's, already annoyed at the Ferengi for whatever he was doing to drive the station into absolute chaos.

Sisko met Odo outside of Quark's.

"What has he done? Is it some illegal cargo that's putting off some kind of toxic fume? A new kind of synthetic beverage causing a heightened level of intoxication?"

"It maybe a bit of both," Sisko said with a laugh. "But—we have some reason to believe that it's at least somewhat related to the presence of a certain Betazoid ambassador."

The words took a moment for Odo to fully digest them.

"A Betazoid ambassador?"

"When communications went down because of that incident," Sisko started.

"I apologize for no further updates on that. I've been rather…occupied. There was a brawl," Odo said. "Some disagreement over some freighter pilot's wife and his suspicions that she might have had feelings for another pilot that happened to be visiting the station. In the fight, lines were damaged. Everything has been repaired, thanks to Chief O'Brien's quick work, and is now operating as usual. A panel still needs to be replaced, but it isn't critical to the station's functioning."

"Yes—all communications are up now," Sisko said, unbothered by Odo's interruption or report. "But while they were out, Quark couldn't find you, so he found me. It appears that Lwaxana Troi arrived on the station about an hour ago and, well…"

"We weren't alerted to any sort of diplomatic visit," Odo said.

"I believe the visit might be of a more personal nature," Sisko said. "It appears that she arrived as a passenger—without expecting any sort of special treatment. Just another face in the crowd, so to speak."

"Why would she do that?" Odo asked.

"I believe it might have been meant to be a surprise, Odo," Sisko said. "But—whatever her intention, it seems clear that it was derailed at some point. For that reason, I think it might be best if you were to try to handle things…"

As if she had some way of knowing that was her cue, Lwaxana's voice rang out loudly enough that Odo heard it over the din in Quark's—a din that was growing audibly more aggressive and riled up by the moment.

"You listen here, you little troll…I am Lwaxana Troi, and I won't be treated this way! I don't know what you did to me! Let go of me!"

Odo wasted no time in heading inside the bar, where he found Lwaxana sitting at the bar with Quark seemingly wrestling with her, at least to some degree. Odo couldn't guess the explanation for anything, but he could feel that the air inside the bar was thick and practically electrified.

"This is my bar, and I can make anyone leave who isn't helping business…I don't care who you are! I won't serve you anymore, and you can't stay here! You're costing me latinum every minute that you're here!"

"Quark!" Odo said loudly, catching Quark's attention. The somewhat wrestling match ceased abruptly and Lwaxana looked directly at Odo. Her mouth fell open, and her distress was evident. Odo tensed, but was grateful when she didn't burst into tears, as it looked like she might.

"Oh, Odo! I didn't want you to see me like this!" She declared.

"Take your hands off of her, Quark," Odo said.

"Gladly," Quark said. "Odo—she has to leave my bar. She's stirring everyone up with that…with that thing she does. Arguments keep starting and I can hardly serve anyone for trying to keep fights from breaking out. Five customers have already been escorted out, and I've lost a table and two chairs to bodies crashing into them. This is terrible for profits!"

Odo turned his attention from Quark to Lwaxana.

Immediately, he felt something that he hadn't felt for some time—not since the last time he'd seen her leave the station. There was a wobbly sort of feeling to his form, as though he couldn't quite hold it steady for a second. He hoped that it was only a feeling, and not something outwardly visible to those around him.

Lwaxana had shown romantic interest in Odo since practically the moment that she'd met him. At first, he'd thought it was nothing more than Betazoid infatuation—a feeling that would pass quickly—brought on by her appreciation of his having retrieved some of her property that she'd believed lost to a thief. He'd thought she would lose interest or, at the very least, that she would understand that he was a Changeling, and that meant that he didn't love and he didn't feel romantic interest or desire in the same way as other species.

At least, that's what he'd believed, but more and more, he was doubting his own fabricated truth.

Odo had believed, for some time, that he was in love with Major Kira. He'd also believed that to be a secret for a long time, but it seemed that it wasn't exactly that—at least, not anymore. The woman in front of him absolutely knew that he loved Kira.

Or, at the very least, she knew that he'd once believed that he loved Kira.

Since the last time that Lwaxana had left, Odo had found himself questioning a lot of truths that he'd essentially written for himself.

Odo had found himself thinking of Lwaxana more than he might like to admit. Then again, some part of him wondered if what Commander Sisko had once said had some truth to it—maybe, if he let Lwaxana catch him, he might find that he liked it. He might even like it a great deal.

Lwaxana sat at Quark's bar, holding onto it in a way that made Odo quite certain the woman was intoxicated—very intoxicated. Yet, he noticed that the glass in front of her still looked to hold at least one third of its contents, and that was if it had been filled to the very brim—something that would be unlikely given Quark's tiresome focus on profit.

Lwaxana's eyes gave away her intoxication as much as her overall unsteadiness. Her cheeks were flushed with color, too, in an unusual sort of way.

Beyond that, she looked beautiful. She wore a dark teal dress that was cut to accentuate everything any man might find intriguing—and Odo imagined, here in the bar and given all the rowdiness happening on the station, a few might have already found it so—and she was wearing a dark wig accentuated with a few shiny hair clips that made her look like some kind of royalty.

Odo softened to the look in her eyes in a way that was most unexpected, even to him.

"Lwaxana—are you…intoxicated?" He asked.

"Oh—Odo—I wouldn't want you to see me like this! I wouldn't want anyone to see me like this!" Lwaxana declared loudly and with a touch of desperation.

Odo practically felt the stirrings in the bar, and he could tell that Quark did, too. Lwaxana had suffered from an ailment called Zanthi fever. It was particular to members of her species, once they'd reached a certain age. The effects of it were permanent, once it had been contracted. It caused the projection of one's emotions outward. This wasn't the first time that Lwaxana had accidentally turned Deep Space Nine somewhat upside down.

There was a medication for it, Odo knew, that could help control the effects, but the condition was permanent. He wasn't sure it was fair to ask someone to take the medication at all times—or, truly, at any time—since he noticed that nobody complained when Lwaxana brought nothing but positive emotions to the station and improved the morale with her presence.

Still, at the moment, the emotions that she was projecting were probably to blame for the disagreements and negative feelings that had been running through the station since what Odo suspected was her arrival.

"I mean it," Quark said. "Get her out of here, or I'm going to remove her, myself."

"You won't put a hand on her," Odo said. Instinctively, he reached a hand out to touch Lwaxana's shoulder, not entirely certain whether he only meant to off her support, or if he was also simply blocking Quark from making any move toward her. "Lwaxana—how much have you had to drink?"

"Oh—that's just it! I've barely had anything. It's that troll. Whatever he's given me…it's…" She pressed her fingers to her head, and Odo noticed that she swayed a bit in her seat. "I simply asked for a drink to help me relax. One drink…and I haven't even finished it, but I just…"

She stopped. Odo didn't need her to continue. He could tell that she wasn't doing well at all. He reached for the glass and examined the contents. His sense of smell didn't work like human senses, he knew, but he did have senses that allowed him to detect characteristics of things in his own way. The liquid in the glass was unusual in several ways.

"What did you order?" He asked Lwaxana.

"Just—a drink," she said. "Surprise me, I said…except…oh…I didn't imagine…"

"That you would be this surprised," Odo supplied, when Lwaxana's words fell off.

She nodded her head and then looked at him in a way that made him ache inexplicably. He felt himself tense, involuntarily, as he slowly realized that he might have a great deal more feelings for this woman than he'd even let himself imagine before.

He turned his attention to Quark.

"What is this?" He asked, gesturing with the glass.

"It's a…new Vendrian delicacy," Quark said. "Very popular, all over the galaxy."

"Some illegal import, I'm sure," Odo said.

"That was legally acquired!" Quark protested.

"You have the receipts for the sale?" Odo asked.

"Not exactly…" Quark said. "Not where I can put my hands on them just now…"

"Stop selling this immediately, Quark," Odo said. "Stop serving it. And get together all that you have, because I will be sending someone to get it."

"You can't do that! That cost me a lot of latinum!"

"The alternative will cost you a lot more," Odo threatened.

Quark knew that Odo wasn't bluffing. He slumped slightly.

"Fine, but get her out of here! I don't need to lose any more money because she's causing my customers to try to tear up the place and run each other out of the bar."

"Don't worry about Lwaxana," Odo said. "Just worry about getting rid of this…poison." Odo turned his attention to Lwaxana. It was clear to him that she wasn't going to be able to walk very steadily, and he wasn't about to let her sacrifice her dignity. He reached an arm out. "Do let me help you?"

"You don't have to," she protested, but he could tell that it was an empty protest. She knew and understood the condition she was in—a condition that only seemed to be worsening as she digested the liquid that she'd consumed.

"Please," Odo said, gently and sincerely. "Let me help you."

She gave him a soft smile and nodded.

"I would appreciate it," she said, all of her normal bravado—which Odo knew to be mostly an act for the benefit of others, and for her own entertainment—gone for a second.

He offered her an arm again, and she took it. When she got to her feet, he reassessed things, and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to him to more fully support her as she walked. She held onto him and sighed when she clearly felt that she was secure and safe in his arms.

"Where are you going with my glass?" Quark asked as Odo started out of the bar with Lwaxana in tow.

"I'm taking it for analysis," Odo said.

"But you're bringing it back?" Quark asked. "Those glasses are expensive, and I've already lost several today."

Odo simply looked at Quark in response, and he saw Quark's expression change as he registered Odo's meaning—at the moment, he couldn't possibly care less about Quark's profit margin or his bar. Even while he'd been there, Odo's combadge had gone off repeatedly, signaling problems here or there on the station, which his team would have to deal with for now. He hoped that, while they were putting out small fires, he could possibly handle the source of the problem—starting with Quark's decision to serve some questionable drink in his bar.

Quark sighed audibly, accepting that Odo wasn't going to humor him in any way today.

"Fine," he said. "I just hope that whatever she's doing to keep things happening the way they are ends soon."

"Stop serving it, Quark—whatever it is. Immediately." Odo turned to Lwaxana, who was heavily leaning on him as he supported her. "Come, Lwaxana—let's take a walk and get some air."

"Odo—I'm so sorry," Lwaxana declared, as soon as they were outside the bar. "I never meant for this to happen."

"You're hardly to blame," Odo said. "Quark should know better than to serve whatever concoction he's been sold with no more information than the promise that people will find it intoxicating."

"If I hadn't stopped to have a drink…" Lwaxana said.

Odo frowned. He hated to hear her beating herself up. He hated to know that she was as unhappy as she was—an unhappiness that was evidenced by the behavior of those around her.

"Hush now, Lwaxana," he said, hoping his words were strong enough to stop her, but soft enough not to upset her worse. "It's hardly a crime to have a drink in a public bar."

"But to be so out of control of things…oh, Odo, I do feel unwell…"

"That's hardly your fault, either," Odo said. "Come along—we'll get it taken care of."

"Where are we going?" Lwaxana asked. She tensed slightly, suddenly seeming to realize that she'd been going along with Odo blindly.

Odo felt a warm sensation flood through him as he realized that she trusted him enough to go with him wherever he may lead her, even in a state where she was, arguably, quite vulnerable.

Every one of the feelings that she'd professed for him, he realized—feelings that he'd doubted—was sincere. Odo started to truly accept, too, that many of his own feelings that he'd been denying were also true, frightening as he may find that truth.

He tightened his hold on her slightly, hoping to offer her a bit more comfort and reassurance.

"It's fine," he said softly, feeling nothing but tenderness for the woman—a tenderness that, admittedly, frightened him a little because it was so sincere and so new to him. "Just relax, Lwaxana. I'm only taking you to the infirmary. Dr. Bashir will know what to do to help you."

"You don't have time for this," Lwaxana protested. "You have important things to do, Odo."

He felt a sinking feeling—a wave of sadness. He realized how often he'd dismissed her. He realized how he must have made her feel about how he perceived her. He was sorry for all of it. He surely hadn't meant it—not for her. She had, after all, never made him feel less than wonderful—greater than any other being. He was truly sorry, if he'd ever made her feel less-than.

And, though he didn't have the words for it at the moment, he was determined to tell her that, somehow. For now, though, he had to simply try to get her a little relief for the unintended intoxication.

"Don't worry about it, Lwaxana," he said. "This is the most important thing that I have to do right now."