A Temporal Shiver

Drisana woke earlier than Garak, who was still cuddled around her as if afraid she would vanish during the night if he did not. She smiled despite herself, finding this almost infant behavior in this full grown, very powerfully built adult almost cute in a way she couldn't quite describe.

Usually she was a late sleeper, but the operator of the station had called her to come to the main ops stations as soon as possible-as if she even knew where that was. Ah well. Unwrapping herself from Garak's embrace, she quickly gathered her clothes and dressed, running her fingers through her hair wondering how she was going to fix that before spying Garak's brush on a shelf above the bed. Shrugging, she grabbed and used the odd comb/brush combination until her hair at least looked somewhat presentable. Placing the hairbrush back in its allocated spot on a shelf, she left Garak's quarters with him still soundly asleep.

It didn't matter that much, she kept telling herself. After all, she still had no idea what would happen to her now she was her, if she would even be allowed to live on this station or pushed out the nearest airlock. She shrugged off any thought of Garak, and asking for directions multiple times, managed to find the ops station where the station operator-what was his name, Sisko, had called her. He was an average height human male with a rather strikingly unfriendly demeanor. She disliked him after five minutes of conversation. All he had woken her up for was to tell her how she needed to follow station rules while she was there and that he expected her to be a "good example of humanity at its finest". The nerve. She did predate him by about 400 years-it was hardly any fault of hers she had been brought here. She was just leaving when she heard a message come in from Cardassian space.

Slowing her approach to the turbo-lift, curious to see if all Cardassians looked like Garak, she looked slightly at the monitor as she stood near the turbo-lift and was close to dumbfounded by the looks of the man on the view screen. If Garak was handsome, this man was a god. She mentally slapped herself. Was that all she could think about-how they looked? For all she knew he was a total asshole. She got onto the turbo-lift and headed for another day on the promenade, the central gathering community space for the station. She wondered what she could do for a living here and began looking for work.

Still, the image of the unknown but extremely good looking Cardassian male on the view screen kept jumping into her mind, along with his commanding voice. She wondered why she was so fond of him given her dislike towards the station operator-oh that was not his true title but she hardly cared-was for much the same reason as her liking the unknown Cardassian. Unfriendly, strong-willed, and militaristic to the core. She should hate him for those reasons but something inside her made her want to meet him. Then it dawned on her why: she wanted to break him. She wanted to see this ultra-handsome, strong male brought to his knees. She was caught off guard by herself. Never, ever had she desired to overpower another? Not in any way, and certainly not in this way. The thought of breaking him, even in that flash of an instant, made her body tingle all over.

Then, she thought of her night with Garak and how it had even started. She wondered why she had dreamt of him then. Had it been purely of loneliness? The more she thought about her handsome Cardassian Tailor, the more she wondered. He had been so eager to please her, to do everything for her. She enjoyed it immensely, his urge to see her satisfied in every way, going so far out of his way at dinner and beyond. He could have done as most males did and simply taken her when she returned to his quarters with him-but he did not. He was focused entirely on her, and it had made her feel truly desired in every way, served even. She had loved every moment of it.

Drisana wandered over to her usual spot by the fountain and sat down. She had to clear her head of these thoughts before she started asking for work, or before someone noticed it. Drisana had not been here long and did not know how rare a true telepath was, but in her day movies used as entertainment played on that theme heavily. She certainly did NOT want her current thoughts read. Get a grip, she told herself. You need a job. Stop thinking with your body and get moving! She mentally chewed herself out for her lapse of judgment and while she could make excuses for it decided not to. Standing, she wandered the promenade Shoppes, mentally noting any that might need someone to lend a hand in any sort of capacity that she could provide or learn to provide.

Garak awoke from his passion induced, coma-like slumber. He dressed himself in his usual greenish-blue outfit. He noticed Drisana vacant of the room, but thought nothing of it right away. He headed downstairs after his morning meal and decided to go for a walk until he had to open his shop for the day.

Garak kept thinking "Is this all for real? Is this woman my Goddess in waiting?" He shook his head to clear it of these thoughts and began a leisurely stroll along the Promenade. He noticed Drisana sitting by the fountain as usual, reading through a form of businesses looking for helping hands.

Reading through the digital scroll was a new experience in and of itself-at least she could now check that off her list of things to learn. Putting it down on the white-beige marble of the fountain she stood and stretched herself slowly, figuring she would head back to Quark's, soon. If nothing else, she could at least learn the latest gossip and for a little info on herself maybe score a free drink or two from the trip. Quark was talkative by nature-this much she could tell quickly and easily, and she planned on using that to her advantage. If she had to resort to blackmail to survive, so be it. She really did not believe for a second she would sink so low, but she was still in a bad mood from Sisko's words. Gods that man annoyed her. He might be a good leader but she could tell they would never get along. She wondered idly if humans had really changed so much in the past four hundred years that he now had more in common with another race than her own.

Speak of the devil, she thought, catching a glimpse of the familiar green and blue tunic out of the corner of her eye and knowing immediately whom it belonged to, so familiar had she become in one night with the look and movement of his body. Turning but not rising to meet him she smiled slightly. "So you finally pulled yourself out of bed I see. I've been here for hours. Can you believe that operator-commander-captain-emissary-whatever he wants to call himself combed me, made me go to ops, just to lecture me to behave properly? I don't know what hour he did this either, but I would definitely feel justified to call it way too damn early!"

Drisana vented to Garak once he was in normal talking range, and rather louder than she wanted to, but she honestly had no respect for the man so did not care who overheard her dislike of Sisko and his criticisms of her. She also knew somewhere deep down she was feeling slightly guilty for her earlier thoughts and was doing her best to hide them entirely, again with that irrational fear of telepathy being used against her. She had many secrets and while most were long since buried in the past she would rather her skeleton closet remained closed.

What she did not see was the marked raise of his ridges or the sweating of his palms. She did however smell the pheromones coming from him, and they affected her much more than she wanted to admit. Drisana felt an almost overwhelming desire to force him against the fountain and soak them both, the cold water be damned. Again, she shook herself mentally.

She tried to show no signs of what she had just been thinking on her face but had no clue if she succeeded. Clearing her throat she changed topics.

"So, any idea where I can find some work before they throw me out an airlock for being totally useless?"

Garak looked down in a nervous demeanor. "I...I was coming to ask you actually....if you would like to work for me Drisana? I can't promise the best pay, but I can provide a safe place to eat and sleep and something to keep you from going completely insane on this wretched station." He said with a hint of flirtation in his voice.

He turned towards Quark's bar, motioned to it with a bored wave of his arm. "Why don't you think it over....Come, I want you to meet up with the good Doctor and have lunch with us." That was the last thing he remembered saying before being slammed in the back of the neck with a military tactic he knew all too well.

If he had not of turned, he could of seen it coming. He had gotten sloppy, careless in his time on this station. When he came back around, Drisana and whomever had hit him were gone.

Caught completely off guard three times in one day and it was not even lunchtime yet. Either she was getting slow or this was a madhouse. First Sisko lecturing her, then Garak's out of the blue offer-which was almost a plea, to her ears-and now this. She looked at the two men who were almost carrying her to the upper pylon levels carefully.

Full black armor with a diamond cut silver fabric overlay. Then she actually woke up to the fact they were Cardassians.

Great, now what have I done? Drisana wondered. She didn't attempt to resist them figuring she was just being hauled in for yet another do's and don'ts, probably because of her associating with a member not of her own race or some other such nonsense. Not to mention two to one did not make for the best of odds, especially when the two in question were armored and had weaponry way past anything she could recognize beyond the fact that it was probably highly dangerous, and to top it off they were trained. She was about to demand that they at least tell her where she was being taken when they all but threw her inside a conference room on the third upper pylon.

As Drisana tried to recover and just barely succeeded in recovering her balance, she saw the one person she had never thought she would meet. There, sitting calmly behind the desk was the same, ultra-handsome Cardassian Male she had caught a glimpse of on the view screen. She was about to demand to know what the hell was wrong with him, but he spoke first in a calm, clear, and commanding tone that stopped her before she even started yelling.

"My name is Gul Dukat, head of the second order. That will not mean much to you but think of it as the same position your top military general would of held in your own time frame. Sit down." Drisana remained standing and glared at him, not saying a word. He grinned at her defiance and that just made her pissed off, and again set her to feeling the urge to break him, smash his ego into pieces.

She forced the urge back and raised her head high, and with as much dignity as she could muster given how she had been flung inside this room like a rag doll, she said "I don't give a damn who you are! You do not go dragging off people who are just wandering the promenade causing no harm to anyone, without damn good reason. So make it good. I have a job to interview for." She added the last bit, thinking back to Garak and deciding she would take him up on his offer provided this conversation alone did not get her killed.

Gul Dukat merely raised both his hands, the same grin on his face, unchanged. "I meant you no harm. I will have to talk to my guards about your treatment. I do apologize for any inconvenience. Perhaps I should make it up to you. You will have dinner with me tonight. I am only at this station for the next three days. You will return here. My guards will escort you-and do so properly this time. I wish to learn about you, about how you came to be here. Starfleet only shared so much with us, and in the interests of retaining good relations they have allowed us-well, me-to meet with you personally. Oh but you did say you had an interview. By all means, go." He waved one hand casually towards the door, but before Drisana had the chance to leave, Gul Dukat stood up behind his desk, walked towards her and swept up her hand, kissing it long and lingering, using the tip of his tongue on the back of it. She wanted to pull her hand away but then again...she did not. Gul Dukat dropped her hand making the choice a moot point, rather pleased to discover she had not fought against his obvious advance. "I do hope we can be friends. You will need friends in this place. Trust me on that one."

Drisana's teeth were on edge. She was torn between the urges of running out the door, kneeing this annoyingly smug bastard in the groin, or taking him on the conference table desktop without warning. Given his less than hidden flirt she doubted he would object. She decided to do none of these things. She was not going to give him the satisfaction.

It was then that it dawned on her why she had been commed by Sisko so early in the morning and told to be a model of humanity. Damn that man, he could of at least warned me a little! She thought angrily but tried to show none of it. Turning with as much casualness as she could, she walked out the door and guards immediately moved to stop her, but with a word from Gul Dukat they stepped aside and she left the small office where her world seemed to be set spinning once again.

Returning as quickly as possible to Garak's Shoppe, where she found him pacing and looking almost vivid until he saw her, then almost pale with relief. Drisana told Garak every detail once he led her to the back room, where he did the more intricate works of his business and where they could talk without being overheard.

She told him how Gul Dukat had treated her, every detail of the encounter, except of course, for her own personal urges that she had (wisely, she thought), not acted on. Those she kept silent about.

She did, however, tell him at the very end how Gul Dukat had kissed her hand and asked, but more like said he wanted to be ' her friend'. She wanted to see what Garak would do. She didn't know if it was out of cruelty towards Garak, some twist in her desires or just the unfair way in which the universe seemed to be playing with her, but she wanted to see for just a second someone else suffer from the randomness of it all.

Garak lowered his head, the ridges of his entire body raising higher than ever before....the heat almost boiling from his skin. He was very quiet for a minute. When he spoke, it was in he clipped tones of a man trying very hard not to yell out of sheer anger.

"Drisana, Gul Dukat is a long-time rival of mine who began as a close friend to me in my childhood. He had you taken, not because of how you got to the here and now, but to spite me! He has eyes and eats everywhere, and he knows how we are together, and he wants that torn from me, to break me into a rage that knows no bounds. I should have been more alert to this possibility. I am sorry you have become involved in some very old politics between the Gul and myself."

If only Drisana had known that that Gul Dukat thought much the same about Garak's interest in her, it would of been very humorous. As it stood, she did not and merely watching him, listening intently to his every word.

Breathing heavily from anger but trying to calm down so he could think clearly Garak embraced her hand, grasping it firmly with both of his own and he placed her hand against his cheek holding it there as he spoke to her, his words still somewhat clipped but now also with another emotion, more powerful than his short bursting rage-it was the fear, the overwhelming fear of losing her. He did not know it yet, but was planning to keep her forever.

Drisana was pleased. Extremely pleased. She had gotten just the reaction she had hoped for-and yet, she didn't feel bad in the slightest.

She used her tongue on his hand sensually and slowly as it pressed against her check, trailing her fingers over his ridges- noticing for the first time they did raise when he felt a strong emotion as well as the heat, almost like a stove, coming from his muscles as they tensed in anger. Garak pressed his head against hers, looking deeply into her eyes.

"Drisana," Garak said just as she was pulling her hand away from his face, still pressed face to face against him "No harm will come to you from Dukat, I promise you that. I will do anything I have to in order to keep you alive and safe. Now, should you ever need it..."

Garak stopped in mid-sentence and then, using a small button remover onto his work table next to them, pried up a couple of floor tiles. He opens a floor tile where a fully stocked supply room lay hidden beneath the floor. He spent his last five years here building it for safety, knowing Gul would be here to eradicate him. He had been on this station during the Cardassian occupation too. He knew the layout better than most, and he knew of this old small cargo hold that had been originally designed small as it was only ever supposed to temporarily house outgoing medical supplies deemed too dangerous to be anywhere else. As far as Starfleet engineering knew, it was simply an archaic Cardassian conduit station so they left it alone, an old ghost of the station's former masters. When he returned to this station, as an exile he had made sure his Shoppe would be above it. A multi-skilled assassin of the highest caliber, he had not survived this long by not having a plan B. Or C. Or D.

He could call on old favors if the need arose, but given the station limits on weaponry and how many Cardassians (not including himself as he was a permanent resident) could be onto the station at any one time, that Dukat would simply have to lose at this particular small play at revenge.

She shook her head at the offer of his retreat, though she was to say the least very impressed and more than a little curious.

"I have the feeling I am not going to be able to avoid this. I have to meet with him. Now with Sisko involved I think I would be forced either way. No to mention, his guards followed me. I may not be a top spy but I know when I am being followed -especially when they are not trying to hide. If I suddenly vanished from this spot, they would know who and why. No," She paused and sighed slightly, knowing there was nothing to be done for it.

"I have a better idea. I'll play along. I will be the 'model of humanity'. If he thinks there is nothing between us, or that it is one sided at least-then perhaps he will lose interest. From what you told me he is basically exactly what I expected. A pompous military goose-stepping asshole. We had plenty of those on Earth in my day, I can handle it." She said with confidence, and something else that seemed to linger in her voice that she was trying to hide. She bent down, replacing the floor panels herself, mentally noting which ones they were in case she ever did have to suddenly use it. Standing straight she hugged Garak tightly for a moment before releasing him.

"I had better go; otherwise his minions will report that I am here for more than an interview." She smirked slightly at him just before leaving his Shoppe. She called back over her shoulder at him.

"Oh by the way-do I have that job or has the position been filled in my absence?"

"Funny you ask. There was a woman here today and she didn't seem interested, but she licked my hand and I gave her the job."

Garak smiled slightly at her. After she left, Garak closed the door to the backroom to continue the alterations he was backed up on-and to try and figure out what else had been in her voice when she spoke about meeting with Gul Dukat. He dearly hoped he was wrong, but his training, knowing how to read a person regardless of species was so ingrained in him he could not shake the feeling that Gul Dukat might just win the only thing Garak had left to care about without even trying. He feared it and only when he had pricked himself by accident more than once was he able to focus on anything but that feeling. He was worried, but there was nothing to be done about it. Drisana has a right. She can choose to be with whomever she wants, Garak chided himself.