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Kira was glad that Sisko had met her and Bashir at the airlock and not waited for them to report to Ops. She had not wanted to go through Ops wearing the Intendant’s choice of revealing evening gown.
Kira and Bashir had debriefed Sisko as quickly as they could as they walked the corridors to the habitat ring, before he had dismissed them both to rest and recover from their ordeals. Bashir looked relieved to be given the chance heal his wounds received under the care of Overseer Odo, while Kira just wanted to be out of the uncomfortable gown.
Once back in her quarters, Kira took a moment to reorientate herself, reassuring herself that this was her station, that the shadows she saw were the familiar ones she trusted and not hiding with a Terran slave attendant or lurking threat of their Mirror Garak. This was her quarters that she had checked over meticulously for hidden dangers. Taking a moment to breath, she tugged at the fasteners on the dress, trying to work out how the attendants had secured her into the gown, before frustration got the better of her and she pulled at the seams, ripping out of the dress and throwing it in a crumpled pile on the ground. At least the shoes had been abandoned in the mirror universe during the run through the station, the heels uncomfortably impractical to run from Alliance guards in. Her face felt heavy with make-up, her hair stiff with styling product, and the air sickly sweet with a perfume that reminded her of the life of excess the Intendant lived, and wanted her to join her in.
Wanting nothing more than to wash the whole experience from her body and mind, she threw herself into the shower. She set it to a scalding hot water spray to cleanse her body, instead of using the invisible waves of the sonic shower.
The soothing water ran over her skin, washing away the last few days, trickling down her legs and into what appeared to be a drain that disguised the replicator to convert the water, soap suds, dirt and all, back into replicated matter for reuse.
She turned her face to the water, hiding the prickling feeling in her eyes as her body released the pent-up emotions she’d been holding back.
Over the steady thrumming of the water she heard a voice, and strained to listen for it again. Upon hearing it clearly again she thumped the control panel to turn off the water. Reaching for the towel, she wrapped it around her body, covering the essentials in case she needed to make a sudden move.
“Nerys! Are you in there?” A voice called, closer to the bathroom now.
Kira’s hand wavered over the door panel to the bathroom, cautious about opening it. “Dax? Is that you?” she asked, looking out into the room and seeing the tall black shape of Dax in the main room.
Dax’s face lit up, rushing to her and hugging her tight, lifting her off the ground with her embrace. “Nerys! I’m so glad, I thought…” Dax didn’t finish the words. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
“Me too,” Kira blushed as Dax put her down and the towel started to fall. Quickly she pulled the towel up tight around her. “I needed to wash all reminders of that place off me. I felt so dirty.”
Dax looked down at the lavender fabric crumpled on the ground. “Julian looked a lot worse for his adventures.”
“Dirty in other ways.” Kira told her, heading to the bedroom in search of something more to cover up with.
“You don’t have to explain, especially not right now. I’m sure you’ve been through a lot.” Dax nervously fidgeted with a rivet by the door frame. “I just wanted to apologise. When we couldn’t find any trace of your runabout and repeated searches had failed to find you... I came in here and removed some of my things. You know, just in case the worst... I know you wouldn’t want anyone finding out about us.”
Kira grimly nodded at the thought. “Thanks,” she muttered, not wanting to think about the problem of her dying and news of her relationship being leaked.
“I’m meant to be heading down to the runabout launch pad right now to check it over. I told Benjamin I had to get some equipment from my quarters that I had borrowed from the science lab first before going there. Its just an excuse because I had to see you first.”
“Well I’m back, and I’ll be okay Jadzia.” She tried to convince more herself than Dax.
Dax went up to hold her again, making moves to kiss her, but Kira pulled away.
“I’m sorry.” Dax seemed surprised by the way Kira brushed her off. “I probably should get back on duty.” Dax’s fingers brushed over her neck, settling on one spot that she looked over with curiosity. “Definitely looks like you’ve got some interesting stories to tell when you’re ready.”
Kira turned to look in the mirror to see what Dax was referring to, seeing the dark oval shaped red mark on her neck, and further down her collarbone. “That jag’gud!” Kira exclaimed in Bajoran, using a word that was too vulgar for her to say in Federation standard, as she looked at the clearly visible marks along her neck.
“Who?”
“It’s not what you think.” Kira tried to explain.
“What I think is that someone has given you several rather impressive sized love bites along your neck and collarbone. You know I don’t mind if you sleep with other people.”
“Well technically it wasn’t someone else. It was me. But… but not me.” Kira sat down on the end of the bed, trying to find the words to explain it to Dax. “Do you know about a Federation Captain named Kirk who had a transporter accident and shifted to a mirror universe?”
“You traveled to the mirror universe? You mean that it was your mirror counterpart who gave you those bites?” Dax asked with amazement. “I guess that’s a different way to have sex with yourself,” she chuckled with amusement at her joke, then saw that Kira wasn’t laughing.
“I didn’t… she wanted… I… that didn’t happen.” Kira finally explained, alarmed at the assumption. “She was very insistent, but I said no. I suspect she doesn’t normally hear no, so left those as a reminder after some very intense flirting.”
Dax sat down next to Kira, putting a comforting hand on her knee. “A dermal regenerator will get rid of them. I’ll go borrow one from Julian before your next shift. No one need know about it.”
“Thanks Jadzia.” Kira still couldn’t look Dax in the eyes. “You didn’t have to apologise for taking your things from my quarters. I would have done the same in your shoes. I also… my mirror universe self, she seemed very sexually… um… available to anyone. Even then I couldn’t tell her anything about you when she wanted to know what kind of person I was interested in. I told her about Bareil, and now she’s trying to find his mirror universe counterpart to see if she likes him as much as I do. I don’t know what you are like there, I couldn’t do that to you. Any form of you.”
“That makes sense, I think.” Dax said eventually. “It sounds like you’ve had a very confusing experience and need some time to process it all.”
Kira nodded, glad that Dax understood. “I’ve been looking forward to being able to meditate. I haven’t had much chance to be alone, at least not without the threat of someone watching over me.”
Dax stood up to leave. “I’ll give you your space. Call me when you’re ready to talk.”
“I’ll put in a request for a neutrino booster scan when I’m ready.” Kira told her, their secret phrase for wanting time together without anyone who may overhear them being the wiser.