Echoes by OdoGoddess

It was something about the set of her shoulders that made him stare.

He seemed to recall that they should be straighter, taller, prouder. Yet he didn't think he knew her. Or did he? His crystal-clear memory slipped back in time, back and back, and finally he found the reference. Her name was B'Elanna Torres. A Maquis, at least once when that affiliation might have mattered. She'd been among those lost on Voyager when it disappeared in the Badlands in 2470. She was half-Klingon, half-Human, and entirely divisive female he recalled.

That was then, though. She looked different now. Harder, yet also somehow... defeated.

He wondered what she might have done and seen in her long voyage. He wondered what had changed her to the female he saw now... and who he suddenly realized, had noticed him staring.

"Take a picture. It'll last longer," she snapped, not exactly annoyed, but not entirely friendly either. More wary, he decided. For some reason, she reminded him of another time, another fiery female.

"I don't have the equipment needed to take a picture, Ms. Torres."

She lifted a brow at this and turned to study him more carefully.

"I'm not-- wait. How do you know who I--?" She frowned. "You couldn't be..."

He recognized that look -- disbelief.

"If you mean I couldn't be the officer you saw once, here on what used to be Deep Space Nine, then you are mistaken. I was once that officer," he admitted.

She shook her head, in admiration more than disbelief. "You've hardly changed. You were a shapeshifter as I recall. Your people must live a long time."

"So must yours. Voyager was stranded over 58 years ago as I recall." He hadn't been aware it had returned, but then he had only been on the station seven hours. Seven hours after a five hour flight from Bajor.

B'Elanna sighed, bringing him back to the present.

"She was. We were. We... got back, but the technology that brought us back home from the Delta Quadrant had the unexpected effect of moving us not just faster forward, but forward through time. We wound up in Cardassian territory." She paused. "Things had.. changed. A lot of things have changed."

"Yes." A long silence followed this, and finally Odo added, "But you're home now."

"Or near enough to it," she conceded. "I never really had much of a home. The Badlands, various colonies, even this rundown old Cardassian mausoleum... it was home to me for awhile."

The changeling followed her gaze around the station and he had to agree. It *was* a rundown old Cardassian mausoleum. Yet it once had the power to make him feel peace even when the crowds of residents and visitors seemed to grow day by day.

"And to me," Odo finally murmured. He looked down the upper level of the Promenade where they both stood by Quark's bar and his gaze softened further. Garak's tailor shop used to be there. Now a Starfleet armory was in it's place.

Like Torres had noted, so many things had changed...

"Would you like to share a drink?"

Odo blinked and looked back to Torres, who was eyeing him with a slight smile on her face. She hefted her knap sack onto one shoulder and gestured toward the bar behind them. He automatically looked at the name and shook his head. The name was the same, but he already knew the proprietor was gone. Not dead, he'd been assured by the Bolian bartender, but living off the profits and enjoying his declining years on Cardassia Prime with his wife and family. He flinched at this thought and B'Elanna noticed it.

"I think we both need one," she added, stepping up to nudge his arm with hers and head to the entrance of the bar. She didn't look back to see if he followed, but he did.

(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



"So you were gone then?"

"My people... I had to show them the truth behind the fear they'd hidden behind for centuries. I had to try and keep the peace between them and the Alpha Quadrant."

"We'd heard you were at war. While we were gone I mean. We got a packet of letters from family and friends. A lot of us wondered what was happening. What had happened."

"We achieved a peace accord. In exchange for returning to my people, to heal them and help them, a female of my race was held for war crimes and imprisoned."

"You had to stay with your people?" B'Elanna set down her drink and considered him.

Odo nodded. "It was difficult, but necessary."

"You had someone didn't you? Someone here that you loved." It wasn't a question.

He sighed. "Is it so obvious?"

"To someone who's been there, yeah."

He nodded. "I left my fiancée behind."

"Ouch."

"Indeed."

"Were you ever able to... come see her?"

"I thought I would. It was why we got betrothed. She accompanied me to my home world. She wanted to tell me, to show me we could still be together, despite everything. I didn't think it was wise, but... she refused to let me beam down without promising to marry me when I returned. So I promised." He paused, remembering, then sighed. "And I joined my people."

"And you didn't come back."

"Not until... recently."

"Ooh." She winced in sympathy.

"I... time is different for us. I thought it was only a few years."

She nodded in understanding. "That's rough. But did you find her?"

He sat a little straighter, as if holding himself together. His voice was mild and even. "She's no longer here. She's married... a grandmother now."

"I'm sorry."

This time Odo said nothing. His gaze grew soft and his lips twitched into a sad little smile. B'Elanna said nothing, letting the silence do it's work.

"I was happy for her... after I realized how much time had passed. I... left."

"You didn't want her to feel guilty."

Odo nodded.

"Noble man."

He finally seemed to wake up. "I'm *not* a man."

B'Elanna considered this and sipped at her drink before setting it down decisively and leaning over to pick up her knap sack.

"Could've fooled me." She stood. "I don't know why, but I like you. And I'd like to keep talking, but I'm tired. Would you walk me to my quarters?"

He looked up at her for a long moment before nodding slightly and standing, too.

(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



2B cont'd

x-no-archive: yes

Date: 18 February 2001
NEW DS9 [R] "Echoes" (xo O/T), 2/4
by (-|-)* Judith (odogoddess@odospadd.com)

(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



DISCLAIMER: See part 1.



B'Elanna couldn't figure out what it was about him that made her want to stick around.

Maybe it was his face. He looked as if he dared not show anything but the merest trace of emotion. She could understand that. She could even respect it.

Maybe it was his eyes. They held so many things it made her wonder what he had seen, what made him so rueful. They were also a vivid shade of blue, something she had to admit she was a sucker for.

Maybe it was his remoteness. She could really respect that. It had taken her a long time to approach anyone after... after Tom's death, and her baby's...much less consider making love with anyone.

__Is that what you're doing, B'Elanna? Approaching him? Are you going to make love to this man?__

She took a deep breath now and looked back to where he trailed by her side in the corridor. Without thinking she took his hand in hers and felt his start. She ignored it and kept going toward the room she had been assigned by the station quartermaster. He didn't pull away, she noted. He also didn't close his fingers on hers.

She could understand *that*, too.

"Here we are, I think." She pulled up at a doorway and looked over to him, smiling slightly but not enough that it required a reciprocal response from him.

He nodded. "Are we - going in?"

She noted the slight questioning tone that indicated he wasn't asking her so much as wondering at his own behaviour.

__Good.__ Torres nodded at him and tapped the entry panel.

The doors obediently slid apart and she walked in, still holding his hand. He seemed to hesitate.

"Ms. Torres--"

"Mrs. Paris," she corrected, turning to him and touching his lips with her fingers. They were cool and smooth to the touch. She also noticed that they trembled as he spoke.

"You didn't tell me you were married."

"He's dead." B'Elanna's eyes filled with tears as she looked up at him, angry at the knowledge. When she spoke again it was almost defiantly, "He's dead and so is our baby. I didn't take his name when we married, but... now it's all I have left."

She could not stay angry as Odo's own eyes reflected his sympathy. She felt his hand on her cheek then as he whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She shook her head, blinking the tears away. "Just... be with me... now."

He said nothing, but something, some indefinable emotion flickered briefly in his eyes. Then B'Elanna felt his hand slide along her face to stroke her lips. They were cool and smooth, feeling good against her rapidly heating skin. She took one of them and placed it on her breast. It felt good. She made him press it firmly.

At this he pulled back. "M--"

"Call me B'Elanna."

He nodded, but didn't continue and she pressed his hand hard against her breast again. Instead of acquiescing to her silent request, he pulled his hand carefully back, looking down and away.

"I'm not in the habit of hurting my sexual partners," he said quietly.

__Another difference.__ Her eyes narrowed at her own thought. Anger and sorrow filled her at the unbidden memory of Tom. His lips, his hands... cold as they lay folded on his chest in the funerary tube. Hands that once had held her, hurting and pleasuring her at the same time, Klingon-fashion, foregoing his own Human preferences for hers. Those hands, those times were gone.

Before Odo could respond, she suddenly moved forward, smothering his mouth with her own, nipping at him and exulting in the differences. No fresh scent of blood and musk, no salty tang greeted her or inflamed her Klingon blood. There was only a cool, odd liquidity inside his mouth that gave nothing of itself except in taste. A mild, smoky flavour, like water dipped from a cask of burnt wood lingered on her palate, alien, but not unpleasant.

He didn't wince, nor try to respond, either, and she found she wasn't sure if that disappointed her or not. One thing was certain - he didn't pull back. Odo was trembling though, as if fighting something, perhaps himself.

She could feel when he made his decision. His hands began to move, his lips moved against hers. Instead of a heated response as she expected, he gentled her, gentled her steely kiss into something still demanding, but calmer, and with him in control. The taste of him grew sweet and sharp, his kiss teasing her senses now with a soothing and familiar aroma like a wood fire.

__Dammit, but I need this!__

B'Elanna could feel her heart thumping loudly, her blood racing through her body. Despite his slender, almost fragile appearance, he was strong. She could not budge him, she realized, unless he let her.

He didn't overpower her, though, or try to lead their unspoken dance. She made a few more efforts to turn their tryst into something more familiar, the fiery conflagration her Klingon half understood. That would have made her lose conscious thought as she lost herself in the sensations of sexual conquest. Odo seemed to know this, somehow, and he simply did not permit it. He merely kissed her as if it was imperative that he do so, thoroughly, as if learning her mouth cell by cell. It made her want to whimper with need. Her hands tried to pull free, but he was holding them and his grip was surprisingly strong, yet gentle.

After a moment, he let them go so she could do as she wished. It made no difference she soon realized, he was as immovable as a runabout. Yet a runabout couldn't slip strong, cool, smooth hands around her and hold her closely, or keep her from dominating their interaction. This was a novel sensation to B'Elanna.

__So different from Tom...__

This thought made her pull free of his lips and growl in frustration. __Damn!__

"B'Elanna?"

His polite concern undid her. She closed her eyes, letting the tears wet her lashes before responding as calmly as she could.

"I... I was comparing you with him... with Tom, my husband. I know I shouldn't. But--"

"You couldn't help it," he finished, with a slight sigh and nodding. "I understand."

She opened her eyes to look at him then. "Because you're doing the same thing?"

He nodded solemnly, his seriousness almost making her laugh. She smiled instead and leaned in against him, a request to be held which he did acquiesce to.

She stayed there long enough to realize there was another difference.

__He's not breathing. I can't hear his heart.__

"You have no heartbeat."

"Changelings have no heart."

"What do you love with then?"

She pulled back to look at him. That sorrowful look had returned. He swallowed, a gesture that fascinated B'Elanna with it's seeming naturalness.

He also didn't answer, asking instead, "Have you changed your mind?"

She could hear the wistfulness in his gravely polite tone. In response, she took one of his hands in hers and shook her head. After an interval neither could time, they linked hands and slowly began walking toward the bedroom.



(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



2B cont'd

x-no-archive: yes

Date: 14 February 2001
NEW DS9 [R] "Echoes" (xo O/T), 3/4
by (-|-)* Judith (odogoddess@odospadd.com)

(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



DISCLAIMER: See part 1.



The room was almost pitch dark and they stopped just within the dimness. They turned to one another. She could hear an odd sound, but before she could inquire, Odo spoke, sounding rough and unsteady, as he ordered the lights on. When they came on, B'Elanna gasped.

He was nude, his clothing miraculously absent, having been absorbed into his substance, likely the sound she had heard. A faint hint of a smile lit his lips as he looked at her, too, but his eyes still held that hint of sorrow.

"It's easier this way," he explained.

She smiled now, looking over his unspectacularly humanoid-looking body, feeling calmer than she had in weeks. She nodded in agreement. "Usually."

She reached for her shirt bottom, preparatory to lifting it over her head and he stopped her.

"Allow me."

B'Elanna nodded and stood, waiting, feeling her flesh goose pimple with need, desire.

He stepped up and placed his hands on her hips. When he didn't move them she frowned, then gasped again as she felt a smooth, liquid sensation lifting her shirt up and away from her. It was alien and arousing both, and she couldn't help but try to look down.

"Don't." His voice was a rough bark of sound. She looked up and his gaze held hers. Those lips trembled again as he spoke. "Just... feel it. Feel *me*, B'Elanna."

She lifted her hands again, obeying, and that pleasantly unnerving sensation drifted to her shoulders. Soon her top was gone, her breasts bared to his gaze.

Odo finally moved, stepping closer still to gently cup them with his hands. The cool smoothness of his palms against her made her nipples crinkle and B'Elanna shivered, even as a trickle of warm wetness surged from between her thighs. He soon discovered this as his clever hands magicked her slacks from her trembling legs. She moaned and grit her teeth with nearly unbearable wanting when that cool, tingling touch merely slipped her free of underwear and did not pause to delve within her moistened cleft.

"You're quite lovely," he murmured, that raspy voice transmuting into something very different in this situation. Another low growl escaped B'Elanna despite herself and she threw her head back...

...and gasped as Odo bent to graze her neck with his lips, nipping and nuzzling along it to her ear. Her hands clenched against his shoulders and found him unmoved by the sting of her nails. When she pulled one hand down, she saw the deep crescent mark rapidly disappear, leaving no hint of her minor abuse.

She straightened to look at him then. Those blue eyes, as blue as Tom's, studied her in turn.

"You're so different."

"So are you," he admitted.

She took this as her cue and pulled him back to her, this time to kiss him, reacquainting herself with that sweet, smoky taste that was unlike any man she'd ever been with.

__He said he wasn't a man.__

Yet something firm and strong and rigid pressed against her hip, something her body recognized as uniquely male. One of her hands closed on it and he thrust slightly, another thing her body recognized.

Does it matter, she asked herself and slipped from his lips to kiss and taste his skin. It smelt of the earth when a damp layer of leaves is lifted from it, rich and loamy. Everything about him seemed somehow elemental to B'Elanna.

Her hand squeezed that distinctly human-looking organ and he quivered against her, a slight gasp of sound escaping him that she understood and was grateful for. She realized she hadn't been certain just how a shapeshifter might make love. As it turned out, so far it wasn't a completely alien experience.

Without preamble, she gently moved them toward the bed to slip free of him and lay back, arms akimbo, legs open, inviting.

He stood there for a moment, taking in the view of her, his erection bobbing in a very realistic and familiar fashion. When his eyes met hers again, she smiled and beckoned.

The weight of him was familiar, too, she soon learned. To her surprise she found that his smooth, hairless skin quickly warmed against hers. She could feel the play of muscle, or what passed for muscle, in his arms, his legs, his chest. That seemingly impatient shaft of flesh also moved, throbbing slightly from where it was trapped between them.

For his part, Odo was lost in memory. The last year of Kira and his relationship had been magical. One of the reasons was due to Kira's total acceptance of his changeling nature, her graciousness in the face of his true physicality and occasional lack thereof.

They'd linked many times, partly his way, partly her way, but mostly, uniquely, in a half-humanoid, half-changeling manner that best satisfied their need to celebrate both their natures. It had been a long time since he'd been constrained to a physical form, limited by what he could feel with his surface. It felt good. It was what only he could feel and that knowledge was liberating to a changeling not raised in the link.

[[ I do this for me. ]]

He paused for a moment in his reverie, even as he felt B'Elanna's hand seeking and finding his erection, no less sensitive than any man's for being self-constructed, and amended the thought.

[[ For both of us. ]]

Curiousity over how B'Elanna's husband and child had died, what had driven her to seek forgetfulness in his arms, how it came about that both should find them- selves, adrift, rudderless and needy on an old Cardassian station in Bajoran space, all these thoughts disappeared in the immediacy of his feelings.

He could feel her shifting beneath him, gently manoeuvreing him to press against her entrance. Her legs wrapped around his waist and a brief recollection of another time, another woman named Arissa flitted through his wandering mind. The hot, encompassing warmth of B'Elanna surrounding his sensitive flesh recalled him to the now and the fact he was linking, linking in humanoid fashion with a beautiful woman. A woman who felt as empty as he did, and as in need of connecting with someone in order to affirm her reality.

He lost himself in her then, in her rhythm, the touch of her hands in his hair, gripping his arms, nails scratching his back. Her lips sought and found his own, hot and seemingly hungry, nipping and biting him harmlessly, pressing their moist attack in that odd humanoid fashion he could not understand, but had long ago decided he enjoyed. Her legs held him tightly against her, even as his body moved within her, hips swiveling in a tightly compressed circle, pressing his tingling organ deeper within her where hot wet flesh alternately clung to it and seemingly forced it out, punctuated by the oddly liquid sounds of shared intimacy.

The spectrum of his humanoid senses was very nearly overwhelmed. Abruptly he felt their connection constrict, and warm, viscous liquid covered him there, spreading between them and smearing the bedclothes. At the same time he felt her nails sink deep within him, piercing his facsimile skin and grazing his gelatinous interior. He shuddered at the intensely pleasurable and unexpected sensation. A groan escaped him and he heard her cry out, a wordless exclamation that communicated her feelings nonetheless.

In that moment, neither was aware of anything save each other and themselves. In that moment, their shared pain transformed into something bittersweet.

When they finally looked on each other, their eyes held this awareness and neither broke the silence.

Odo found himself carressing B'Elanna's face. Noting the differences, the ridges of her forehead, the smoothness of her nose. She smiled, even as he did.

"I guess that answers that question," she said huskily.

He lifted a brow at this and waited.

"I asked what you loved with. Remember?"

Odo considered this and nodded, his smile fading. His eyes no longer held sadness in their gaze, though, and she'd swear she could hear amusement in that gravely tone.

"Go on."

"All of you."

She reached up a hand and stroked it along his nose. It tickled and he twitched it a little as she leaned up and kissed it.

"You love with all of you."

His response was to kiss her, a slow and searching kiss that eventually deepened to something more demanding. Given that they were still joined it was little surprise to either when they found themselves once again making love.

This time it was slow and less urgent, but no less powerful. After reaching their respective peaks, they slid free of each other to lie side by side. Odo smiled apologetically.

"I'm afraid I'll need to regenerate soon. I haven't taken a form this long in... a long time."

"That's okay. I need to sleep myself," B'Elanna sighed.

His smile dimmed and she considered him as he shook his head. "I... I revert to my gelatinous state when I rest. If you'd rather I stay on the floor, I'll understand."

"Would you ... spill off the bed if you stayed here?"

"Not with you in it. You might find that I pool around you, though. I know that's probably strange."

"No stranger than snoring."

He smiled a little. "I don't snore."

"In that case, you're welcome to stay here with me." She leaned over to kiss him again, then turned and curled into a more comfortable position.

"Good night," she murmured sleepily.

Odo curled up behind her, spooning her and sighed.

"Good night."

He could sense her drift off, hear her breathing lengthen and deepen, feel her limbs relax. His own body pulsed with the need to loosen and let go.

Relaxing his hold on cohesion, he pooled around B'Elanna's sleeping form and let his consciousness drift...

(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



2B cont'd

x-no-archive: yes

Date: 14 February 2001
NEW DS9 [R] "Echoes" (xo O/T), 4/4
by (-|-)* Judith (odogoddess@odospadd.com)

(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



DISCLAIMER: See part 1.



Odo woke to find B'Elanna watching him. He quickly formed into his customary humanoid body, foregoing clothing, since she remained unashamedly nude.

It seemed appropriate somehow, to kiss her, so he did. Her slight grimace made him pull back, however.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's me," she admitted. "My mouth is pretty foul right about now. I haven't cleaned it. I didn't want to get up and disturb you."

He smiled, a gesture that came more easily now. "That's not a problem with me. I have no sense of taste."

She considered this. "Oh."

Odo found himself abruptly being straddled. She leaned over him and proceeded to kiss him quite thoroughly. The action shocked him with it's seeming naturalness.

He remembered this, he recalled. The mornings where Kira had woken aroused...

He closed his eyes tightly now and shut off those memories. There would be better times to cherish them, but they remained mere memories, times never to return. Odo pulled back slightly and B'Elanna eyed him questioningly.

"Memories," he managed to say. She seemed to understand.

"I've had a few myself."

"I hope you don't regret what's happened."

She shook her head.

"I can't. I don't think Tom would either. His first concern was always for my happiness."

Odo nodded. "I understand that."

"Do you regret what's happened?"

He shook his head.

"Do you think your Nerys would?"

After a long moment, he shook his head again, then smiled. "She probably imagines me -- as she told me once after a long night at Quark's and four stardrifters -- in a continual, planet-wide, snarking-huge, changeling orgy."

B'Elanna snorted at this, and chuckled, then sobered. "Is that what it's like?"

"Not quite."

"But part of it is true."

He nodded. "It's what I am. Changelings link. It's what we are. But the Great Link isn't about sex. Still, to a humanoid... well, I can understand how they only see the intimacy of it. But I chose to leave that. There's more to life than... linking."

"Will you go back to her?"

He drew in a breath, finally shaking his head. "There's nothing there. It wouldn't be the same and it would only create disruption. It's like what she imagined about the Great Link -- it was only partly true. What she imagined about my return, it wasn't quite what she thought or what I had."

B'Elanna nodded thoughtfully. "Was the Great Link what you had hoped?"

His eyes again grew sad, but it was a wistful sadness, not that remote sorrow she had sensed yesterday. He shook his head.

"I had no basis to draw a conclusion from. It wasn't what I expected... but then, neither was I what they expected. My presence created a disruption of eons of order. It took a long time to gain a semblance of control."

"Is that why you left? Because you disrupted them?"

"No. I knew I would disrupt them. I left when they finally decided that order was more important than trying to learn a different way of relating to others."

"Ouch." She put a hand on his bare chest and stroked it.

Odo wondered if she had any idea how pleasant it felt, or how distracting it was. His body well-remembered the pleasure of last night. It wanted, he realized, to continue what had started.

"So... you have no sense of taste?" She asked.

"None at all."

"Too bad."

He barely caught a glimpse of her enigmatic smile before she slipped back and began to climb higher on him, her groin at his chest level, then...

"Good morning, Odo," she said, before lowering herself onto his appreciative smile.

(-|-) * * * (-|-) * * * (-|-)



Odo watched B'Elanna's quick, efficient rituals as he waited. After a shared shower, prolonged only by a quick and satisfying coupling, he had rapidly morphed his clothed appearance, a neat Bajoran-styled suit. She took only a few moments longer to towel dry and slip into her own garments.

"So where will you go from here?"

"Earth," B'Elanna admitted as she carefully combed her hair up and off her neck, twisting it into a utilitarian nob just above her neckline where she restrained it with a cord. She turned then to look at him and found he was startled. "What is it?"

"I... I was thinking of going there myself. I should make a report to Starfleet Security. I doubt there's anyone in charge who still knows me anymore, but no doubt they still keep records."

"I'm sure there are." She considered what he said, then found herself adding, "We could share accommodations if you like. I have passage on the Pasadena."

She moved toward the bed where her knapsack lay. It was packed, ready to go. Odo said nothing as she checked the fastenings, before turning to him and essaying, "Or I guess you could just contact them from here, too."

"There's no reason for me to stay here," he finally said.

B'Elanna stepped closer to him now, her gaze steady. "It hurts. Leaving someone behind... it hurts."

He sighed, then admitted softly, "I... I always knew I'd lose her. Changelings live longer than humanoids."

She shrugged. "Life's funny that way. I never expected to be standing here myself, 58 years after Voyager left, still young."

"What will you do? On Earth?"

She shrugged again and sighed. "After the Captain's account we were all cleared of our original crimes."

"You were a Maquis," he recalled.

She managed to smile and grimace at the same time. "Now we're like celebrities. They want to ask us so many things. But I need to learn. Everything is different, new. I need to relearn engineering and figure out what I'm going to do."

"We seem to be at a similar crossroads."

She smiled. "The Bajorans used to have a saying. 'Sometimes the Prophets--'"

"--smooth the path between you.'" Odo was clearly startled, even as he completed her thought.

"What is it?"

"Nerys... it's something she told me once."

"Oh?"

"It was just before we said our good-byes. We were still on the ship. She took my hand and said, 'I'm glad we got to share the Prophet's Path." I remember I told her I didn't believe in them, but was glad she was glad."

"Sounds like she knew."

Odo nodded. "She used to say the Prophet's Path didn't always lead where you expected."

"I'd agree with that," B'Elanna smiled, taking his hand in hers.

He looked down, studied their joined hands for a moment, then raised his head to study her.

"I... I accept your offer. To share passage."

"Good." She lifted his hand and kissed it, squeezed it. "You'd better pack then. The Pasadena leaves in less than an hour."

He smiled at this. "I'm ready -- as is. Changelings don't require much in the way of... clothing and such."

"Good thing," she quipped, then winked at him. "Then let's get started."

B'Elanna leaned over and hefted up the knapsack with her free hand. Squaring it on her shoulder, she looked over at Odo. He nodded.

Then hand in hand they stepped out of the room and into the corridor of the station, headed for the ship that would take them to Earth and whatever awaited... leaving the echoes of the past behind.

~ FINIS ~

---

18 February 2001. The characters are Viacom & Paramount's. The situations they're in are the author's. Not for profit and not meant to infringe on any legal holders of Star Trek copyright. Please do not reproduce for anything other than personal reading use (including fanzines) without written consent of the author.

Comments, questions to: (-|-)* Judith

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