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DS9 - The Spinning Wheel [4/5]
Title: Like I Have Nothing To Hide
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Action
Rating & Warnings: PG-13 (slight dubcon, hairpulling)
Betas: tinsnip and Yosie
Words: This part 2210, appr. 15k overall
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Summary: When Miles returns from a wartime engineering course, Keiko is glad to have him safe at home again--but soon she realises that all is not well. Now she must gather evidence while protecting her family and without letting on that she knows something is wrong. This chapter: A final test.
Author's Notes: Not a lot to say about this chapter, really! I pretty much exhausted my wordiness in earlier chapters. So I hope you all enjoy this one as Keiko takes one last, large risk.
(4)
Nerys was the first one home that evening. The moment she was through the door, she said, "Miles will be here in a minute, but I wanted to tell you: I know about his Christmas surprise. Dr. Bashir let me in on the secret and it sounds great."
Keiko stared at her in bewilderment from her computer chair. Christmas surprise? What Christmas—
That had been the excuse she'd given the Changeling when she had tried to warn Nerys earlier. That meant she had another ally.
Nerys gave her one of her full and beautiful smiles, and had Keiko not already been sitting, she would have collapsed with relief. They were all still in danger, it was true, but for the moment, that didn't matter. It was hard to feel unsafe with Nerys on their side.
"Great. I can't wait to see the look on his face," she answered with just a small tremor in her voice as the door to their quarters slid open.
Stepping inside, the Changeling "playfully" demanded, "What are you two planning now?"
Keiko got up and went over to the replicator. "Water, cool." If asked about her strange tone, she could claim to have something caught in her throat.
"If we told you, it would spoil the surprise," Nerys answered right back. "You'll find out when it's time and no sooner."
As the Changeling grumbled about hating surprises, Nerys came over to Keiko's side and placed a soothing hand on her shoulder. "Keiko, you look exhausted. Why don't I get supper ready so you can get some rest?"
She smiled and shook her head. "It's all right. I wasn't planning to replicate anything out of the ordinary. You go get changed and feed Yoshi. I'll have everything on the table in a few minutes."
Nerys gave her shoulder a squeeze and moved away. "Well, all right. But let me know if you need a hand with anything."
"I will. Thank you," she said—probably too gratefully, but she just couldn't hold back. First Julian had offered to help, then Odo, now there was Nerys and all the senior staff of the station. She wasn't alone anymore, and neither was the real Miles . . . wherever he was.
Her fingers tightened around her damp glass. It slipped in her grip, but she kept hold of it. They would find him. Right now, she needed to concentrate on forcing this impostor from his life.
She didn't make any changes to the food that evening. Even had the Changeling not already been in their quarters, making it impossible for her to sabotage his portion, she still would have left the meal alone. The more time she spent searching for signs that he wasn't her husband, the greater her chances were of being caught and endangering everyone. She was already planning on running one test tonight—there was no need for a second.
"So," Keiko said brightly once they were all seated, "how was everyone's day?"
"Not bad," the Changeling answered. "I'm finally starting to get both the computers and the Defiant under control. Another day or so should do it—I hope."
She tried not to show any special interest and avoided looking at Nerys when she asked, "Really? That must be a relief."
"Oh, it is. Even not fielding a hundred questions a day about when we're going to be fixing the lag will be fantastic. I was getting pretty tired of talking to Quark every hour, believe me."
She didn't have to fake her grimace. "I can imagine."
"Well, I'm glad someone had a good day, because it sure wasn't me," Nerys announced. "I had two freighters and a Bird-of-Prey all insisting they were meant to dock at the same port at the same time. And when I went to check our records, it turned out they had gotten corrupted while the computers were being repaired!"
The Changeling turned an accusing look on her. "You never told me that!"
"I was too busy trying to stop the Klingon captain from solving the problem by firing on the other ships!"
He sighed. "Fine. I'll look into it first thing tomorrow morning. What about you, Keiko?"
The bite she held in her chopsticks slipped free; she ducked her head as she retrieved it. "I'm sorry?"
Her focus had drifted while she had let Nerys carry the conversation, but she couldn't afford that. Her struggle was almost over—no matter how tired she was, she had to keep going until the end.
"How was your day?" "Miles" asked patiently.
"Oh." She set aside her chopsticks and looked up. "Fine. I went to see Julian like you said."
"You did, huh?"
"Well, don't sound surprised." She raised her eyebrows. "I do know how to take advice when it's good."
"Sorry, I thought—never mind."
She waited a beat to give the impression she was deciding whether to press the issue, then went on. "He gave me a hypo, so I'm hoping I'll actually get some sleep tonight." She paused. "Oh, and I also bought some nice perfume from a new shop on the promenade. Nerys, remind me to show it to you later. I think you'll really like it."
"All right. I will," Nerys agreed between bites. Keiko wasn't sure if she understood what her plan was . . . but that was good. The last thing she wanted was for either of them to be was obvious.
"And we went to see Odo and I got a jumja stick," Molly put in.
Keiko's heart stopped.
"Did you?" The Changeling turned on her a look that was both mild and hard. "Now why did you do that?"
Quickly, before Molly could say anything else, Keiko explained, "Julian asked me to drop something off for him."
"Oh yeah? What was it?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. A report, I guess."
"Odo has weird pictures," Molly said, clearly wanting the focus of the conversation back on her.
One horrible moment more, and then the Changeling released her from her husband's gaze. He turned to Molly instead. "Weird pictures? What kind of weird pictures?"
Molly's explanation wasn't what anyone could call clear, but Keiko understood enough of her daughter's logic to know that, as she'd suspected, a few explanations of her own would be in order later that evening.
Mercifully, the puzzle of following where Molly led was enough to distract all of them from that dangerous moment earlier on. It was so effective, in fact, that once supper had been cleared away and Nerys asked after the perfume she'd bought, it took her a moment to remember what she was talking about.
She couldn't stop her hands from shaking as she brought back the bottle from her bedroom, and so, before her trembling became obvious, she set it down on a side table.
The bottle was a small, attractively-made thing, low and rectangular and of thick glass. The liquid inside was pale amber, the colour enriching the deep brown of the wood-and-glass stopper.
"That looks lovely. What kind is it?" Nerys asked as she picked up and studied the bottle.
She nodded at it. "Go ahead and see."
Nerys easily pulled the top from the bottle with a twist and raised it to her nose. She didn't pause, she didn't frown, and she didn't even blink when the scent of nothing more than coloured water reached her. She only sniffed again and said in pleasant surprise, "Oh, this is nice. Can I try it?"
"Of course. I bought it for both of us," she answered and reminded herself to breathe.
"Miles, come over here and smell this," Nerys ordered him, dabbing the "perfume" on her pulse points.
The Changeling raised his head from where he was sunk on the couch with a tech manual. "No, no thanks. Perfume isn't really my thing."
"Oh, come on. One little sniff isn't going to hurt." Nerys held out the bottle.
Keiko watched the Changeling hesitate—but then he set aside his padd and got to his feet. "Oh, all right."
Dutifully, he plodded over and let Nerys wave the bottle under his nose. Like her, he didn't react to the lack of scent, but only said, "It's . . . nice, yeah."
Keiko had to stop herself from sighing in relief, but then her own thoughts slammed into her. Like Nerys. What if . . . ?
As Miles bent over to pick up his manual again, Nerys caught her eye. She winked.
Keiko gasped near-silently and caught at the back of the couch with a hand. She was becoming paranoid—she'd actually thought—
She wasn't sure how much longer she could put up with the strain of all this.
She managed to toss off some comment about how hopeless Miles was, which sparked protests from the Changeling and laughter from Nerys. Then she excused herself to go play with the children, away from the others.
After Molly and Yoshi were both put to bed and when she couldn't stand to be awake any longer, she went to get changed. She dressed quickly; she wasn't sure she could keep her movements natural if the Changeling walked in on her. Then she picked up Julian's hypo from her dresser and returned to the main room.
"Well—I'm going to bed," she announced. The Changeling and Nerys looked up from their padds. "Nerys, if either of the children wake up tonight, could you look after them for me?" She gestured with the hypo. "I won't hear them."
"I could do it," the Changeling offered. Keiko's fingers tightened.
"Not if Yoshi gets hungry, you can't," Nerys told him. She smiled up at her. "Don't worry, Keiko. I'll look after everything."
The phrasing had to be deliberate, and it was one of the most comforting things she had heard all day. Keiko used the momentum of her gratitude to carry her through the smile she gave to the Changeling. "Thank you. Good night."
She turned and let the doors close behind her. Once she was under the covers, she pressed the hypo to her neck and released the medication.
Unconsciousness came quickly and had never been so welcome.
*
The Changeling was gone again in the morning. When she first awoke to his absence, she was so relaxed from her deep sleep—the most satisfying rest she'd had since Miles' last night on the station—that it was as if overnight all her problems had been solved and her family was safe once more.
But then, abruptly, she remembered. The sensation of being loose and drifting immediately seized into tension and she pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. If only she could take that hypo and dose herself back into that safe-feeling sleep—but her children needed her. She had to get up.
She rose and dressed slowly, postponing the moment when she would need to step into the main living area. Her neck and shoulders twinged and pulled with every movement and her chest muscles ached when she took anything but the shallowest of breaths. A good night's sleep, it seemed, could only cure so much.
When she could no longer avoid leaving the temporary bastion of her bedroom, Keiko took in a long breath through her nose, stepped forward . . . and found only Nerys in the living room. Dressed in her uniform, she was balancing Yoshi on her hip and cooing to him. It seemed the Changeling had already left for the day.
Keiko let out her breath all at once; the sound caught Nerys' ear.
"Good morning, Keiko." She crossed the room and held out a bright-eyed Yoshi. Keiko cuddled him close and immediately felt herself relax—somewhat.
"Good morning. Has Miles already left?"
"He has, yes. I'll be going in a minute, too, but I wanted to let you know that I've already fed Molly and Yoshi. Molly's just changing her outfit in the next room. Apparently she didn't like the one I picked for her today."
"That's our Molly—she's always known her mind, ever since she was a baby." She made herself laugh a little.
Nerys smiled, but then she stepped forward and hugged her carefully around Yoshi. She stayed, too, long enough for Keiko to rest her head against Nerys' for a moment.
"Everything is going to be fine," Nerys murmured into her ear. Then she broke the embrace and said at her usual volume, "I'd better be off or I'll be late for the start of my shift."
It was hard not to step back into Nerys' hold, but Keiko managed it. "I'll see you this evening. How does tuwaly pie sound for dessert?"
Nerys smiled again. "It sounds delicious. Don't replicate it until I get back, though—I may be working late." She bent down and wiggled her fingers. "Bye-bye, Yoshi. Be nice to Mommy, okay?"
Yoshi made a happy noise back and reached out a hand. Nerys' smile grew as she straightened and called, "Bye, Molly." Once Molly gave an answering goodbye, she left.
Keiko stood in place for a few seconds afterwards, her gaze on the front door of their quarters. She had spent so much time living between the lines this week. She might be wrong, but she thought that, at last, Nerys was offering hope.
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Action
Rating & Warnings: PG-13 (slight dubcon, hairpulling)
Betas: tinsnip and Yosie
Words: This part 2210, appr. 15k overall
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Summary: When Miles returns from a wartime engineering course, Keiko is glad to have him safe at home again--but soon she realises that all is not well. Now she must gather evidence while protecting her family and without letting on that she knows something is wrong. This chapter: A final test.
Author's Notes: Not a lot to say about this chapter, really! I pretty much exhausted my wordiness in earlier chapters. So I hope you all enjoy this one as Keiko takes one last, large risk.
My love, you'll see
There is a place in my heart
That pulls me away far from you
Nerys was the first one home that evening. The moment she was through the door, she said, "Miles will be here in a minute, but I wanted to tell you: I know about his Christmas surprise. Dr. Bashir let me in on the secret and it sounds great."
Keiko stared at her in bewilderment from her computer chair. Christmas surprise? What Christmas—
That had been the excuse she'd given the Changeling when she had tried to warn Nerys earlier. That meant she had another ally.
Nerys gave her one of her full and beautiful smiles, and had Keiko not already been sitting, she would have collapsed with relief. They were all still in danger, it was true, but for the moment, that didn't matter. It was hard to feel unsafe with Nerys on their side.
"Great. I can't wait to see the look on his face," she answered with just a small tremor in her voice as the door to their quarters slid open.
Stepping inside, the Changeling "playfully" demanded, "What are you two planning now?"
Keiko got up and went over to the replicator. "Water, cool." If asked about her strange tone, she could claim to have something caught in her throat.
"If we told you, it would spoil the surprise," Nerys answered right back. "You'll find out when it's time and no sooner."
As the Changeling grumbled about hating surprises, Nerys came over to Keiko's side and placed a soothing hand on her shoulder. "Keiko, you look exhausted. Why don't I get supper ready so you can get some rest?"
She smiled and shook her head. "It's all right. I wasn't planning to replicate anything out of the ordinary. You go get changed and feed Yoshi. I'll have everything on the table in a few minutes."
Nerys gave her shoulder a squeeze and moved away. "Well, all right. But let me know if you need a hand with anything."
"I will. Thank you," she said—probably too gratefully, but she just couldn't hold back. First Julian had offered to help, then Odo, now there was Nerys and all the senior staff of the station. She wasn't alone anymore, and neither was the real Miles . . . wherever he was.
Her fingers tightened around her damp glass. It slipped in her grip, but she kept hold of it. They would find him. Right now, she needed to concentrate on forcing this impostor from his life.
She didn't make any changes to the food that evening. Even had the Changeling not already been in their quarters, making it impossible for her to sabotage his portion, she still would have left the meal alone. The more time she spent searching for signs that he wasn't her husband, the greater her chances were of being caught and endangering everyone. She was already planning on running one test tonight—there was no need for a second.
"So," Keiko said brightly once they were all seated, "how was everyone's day?"
"Not bad," the Changeling answered. "I'm finally starting to get both the computers and the Defiant under control. Another day or so should do it—I hope."
She tried not to show any special interest and avoided looking at Nerys when she asked, "Really? That must be a relief."
"Oh, it is. Even not fielding a hundred questions a day about when we're going to be fixing the lag will be fantastic. I was getting pretty tired of talking to Quark every hour, believe me."
She didn't have to fake her grimace. "I can imagine."
"Well, I'm glad someone had a good day, because it sure wasn't me," Nerys announced. "I had two freighters and a Bird-of-Prey all insisting they were meant to dock at the same port at the same time. And when I went to check our records, it turned out they had gotten corrupted while the computers were being repaired!"
The Changeling turned an accusing look on her. "You never told me that!"
"I was too busy trying to stop the Klingon captain from solving the problem by firing on the other ships!"
He sighed. "Fine. I'll look into it first thing tomorrow morning. What about you, Keiko?"
The bite she held in her chopsticks slipped free; she ducked her head as she retrieved it. "I'm sorry?"
Her focus had drifted while she had let Nerys carry the conversation, but she couldn't afford that. Her struggle was almost over—no matter how tired she was, she had to keep going until the end.
"How was your day?" "Miles" asked patiently.
"Oh." She set aside her chopsticks and looked up. "Fine. I went to see Julian like you said."
"You did, huh?"
"Well, don't sound surprised." She raised her eyebrows. "I do know how to take advice when it's good."
"Sorry, I thought—never mind."
She waited a beat to give the impression she was deciding whether to press the issue, then went on. "He gave me a hypo, so I'm hoping I'll actually get some sleep tonight." She paused. "Oh, and I also bought some nice perfume from a new shop on the promenade. Nerys, remind me to show it to you later. I think you'll really like it."
"All right. I will," Nerys agreed between bites. Keiko wasn't sure if she understood what her plan was . . . but that was good. The last thing she wanted was for either of them to be was obvious.
"And we went to see Odo and I got a jumja stick," Molly put in.
Keiko's heart stopped.
"Did you?" The Changeling turned on her a look that was both mild and hard. "Now why did you do that?"
Quickly, before Molly could say anything else, Keiko explained, "Julian asked me to drop something off for him."
"Oh yeah? What was it?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. A report, I guess."
"Odo has weird pictures," Molly said, clearly wanting the focus of the conversation back on her.
One horrible moment more, and then the Changeling released her from her husband's gaze. He turned to Molly instead. "Weird pictures? What kind of weird pictures?"
Molly's explanation wasn't what anyone could call clear, but Keiko understood enough of her daughter's logic to know that, as she'd suspected, a few explanations of her own would be in order later that evening.
Mercifully, the puzzle of following where Molly led was enough to distract all of them from that dangerous moment earlier on. It was so effective, in fact, that once supper had been cleared away and Nerys asked after the perfume she'd bought, it took her a moment to remember what she was talking about.
She couldn't stop her hands from shaking as she brought back the bottle from her bedroom, and so, before her trembling became obvious, she set it down on a side table.
The bottle was a small, attractively-made thing, low and rectangular and of thick glass. The liquid inside was pale amber, the colour enriching the deep brown of the wood-and-glass stopper.
"That looks lovely. What kind is it?" Nerys asked as she picked up and studied the bottle.
She nodded at it. "Go ahead and see."
Nerys easily pulled the top from the bottle with a twist and raised it to her nose. She didn't pause, she didn't frown, and she didn't even blink when the scent of nothing more than coloured water reached her. She only sniffed again and said in pleasant surprise, "Oh, this is nice. Can I try it?"
"Of course. I bought it for both of us," she answered and reminded herself to breathe.
"Miles, come over here and smell this," Nerys ordered him, dabbing the "perfume" on her pulse points.
The Changeling raised his head from where he was sunk on the couch with a tech manual. "No, no thanks. Perfume isn't really my thing."
"Oh, come on. One little sniff isn't going to hurt." Nerys held out the bottle.
Keiko watched the Changeling hesitate—but then he set aside his padd and got to his feet. "Oh, all right."
Dutifully, he plodded over and let Nerys wave the bottle under his nose. Like her, he didn't react to the lack of scent, but only said, "It's . . . nice, yeah."
Keiko had to stop herself from sighing in relief, but then her own thoughts slammed into her. Like Nerys. What if . . . ?
As Miles bent over to pick up his manual again, Nerys caught her eye. She winked.
Keiko gasped near-silently and caught at the back of the couch with a hand. She was becoming paranoid—she'd actually thought—
She wasn't sure how much longer she could put up with the strain of all this.
She managed to toss off some comment about how hopeless Miles was, which sparked protests from the Changeling and laughter from Nerys. Then she excused herself to go play with the children, away from the others.
After Molly and Yoshi were both put to bed and when she couldn't stand to be awake any longer, she went to get changed. She dressed quickly; she wasn't sure she could keep her movements natural if the Changeling walked in on her. Then she picked up Julian's hypo from her dresser and returned to the main room.
"Well—I'm going to bed," she announced. The Changeling and Nerys looked up from their padds. "Nerys, if either of the children wake up tonight, could you look after them for me?" She gestured with the hypo. "I won't hear them."
"I could do it," the Changeling offered. Keiko's fingers tightened.
"Not if Yoshi gets hungry, you can't," Nerys told him. She smiled up at her. "Don't worry, Keiko. I'll look after everything."
The phrasing had to be deliberate, and it was one of the most comforting things she had heard all day. Keiko used the momentum of her gratitude to carry her through the smile she gave to the Changeling. "Thank you. Good night."
She turned and let the doors close behind her. Once she was under the covers, she pressed the hypo to her neck and released the medication.
Unconsciousness came quickly and had never been so welcome.
The Changeling was gone again in the morning. When she first awoke to his absence, she was so relaxed from her deep sleep—the most satisfying rest she'd had since Miles' last night on the station—that it was as if overnight all her problems had been solved and her family was safe once more.
But then, abruptly, she remembered. The sensation of being loose and drifting immediately seized into tension and she pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. If only she could take that hypo and dose herself back into that safe-feeling sleep—but her children needed her. She had to get up.
She rose and dressed slowly, postponing the moment when she would need to step into the main living area. Her neck and shoulders twinged and pulled with every movement and her chest muscles ached when she took anything but the shallowest of breaths. A good night's sleep, it seemed, could only cure so much.
When she could no longer avoid leaving the temporary bastion of her bedroom, Keiko took in a long breath through her nose, stepped forward . . . and found only Nerys in the living room. Dressed in her uniform, she was balancing Yoshi on her hip and cooing to him. It seemed the Changeling had already left for the day.
Keiko let out her breath all at once; the sound caught Nerys' ear.
"Good morning, Keiko." She crossed the room and held out a bright-eyed Yoshi. Keiko cuddled him close and immediately felt herself relax—somewhat.
"Good morning. Has Miles already left?"
"He has, yes. I'll be going in a minute, too, but I wanted to let you know that I've already fed Molly and Yoshi. Molly's just changing her outfit in the next room. Apparently she didn't like the one I picked for her today."
"That's our Molly—she's always known her mind, ever since she was a baby." She made herself laugh a little.
Nerys smiled, but then she stepped forward and hugged her carefully around Yoshi. She stayed, too, long enough for Keiko to rest her head against Nerys' for a moment.
"Everything is going to be fine," Nerys murmured into her ear. Then she broke the embrace and said at her usual volume, "I'd better be off or I'll be late for the start of my shift."
It was hard not to step back into Nerys' hold, but Keiko managed it. "I'll see you this evening. How does tuwaly pie sound for dessert?"
Nerys smiled again. "It sounds delicious. Don't replicate it until I get back, though—I may be working late." She bent down and wiggled her fingers. "Bye-bye, Yoshi. Be nice to Mommy, okay?"
Yoshi made a happy noise back and reached out a hand. Nerys' smile grew as she straightened and called, "Bye, Molly." Once Molly gave an answering goodbye, she left.
Keiko stood in place for a few seconds afterwards, her gaze on the front door of their quarters. She had spent so much time living between the lines this week. She might be wrong, but she thought that, at last, Nerys was offering hope.