MEMORIES OF THINGS PAST

This is definitely an AU.

“Garak? Do you have a few minutes?” Jadzia Dax asked, as she entered his shop, seeming uncharacteristically insecure.

“Why, certainly, my dear. What can I show you? A dress to bring out the lovely blue of your eyes, perhaps?”

“No,” she responded demurely. “I’m not shopping. I need to talk to you about something quite private.”

“Well, this is unusual. I’ve never before been the one that you sought out as a confidante. Do sit down back here in my office.”

She accepted, and sighed. “I would just feel too uncomfortable discussing this with Benjamin. And if I went to Odo, this conversation would make both of us uncomfortable.”

“Sounds serious.”

“It is. It’s about our recent shared experience with Benjamin and Odo.”

“Ah yes. Back in time during the Occupation, courtesy of Odo’s misguided attempt at linking.”

Jadzia nodded. She leaned forward slightly. “Garak, how real did that event feel to you?”

“Utterly.”

She nodded again encouragingly.

“And it did more than merely ‘feel’ real. Later, Doctor Bashir told me that my nose actually bled when that guard punched me.”

With lowered eyes, she asked, “Did you guess where I was…when they took me?”

“Easily.”

Her eyes rose again to his.

Garak tilted his head slightly. “Was Dukat kind to you?”

Jadzia nodded mutely.

“Good. I wasn’t too concerned; it was common knowledge that he tended to treat his comfort women with kindness. Still, I’m sure you found the experience most disquieting.”

Her eyes dropped again.

Now he leaned in closer. “Or did you?” When she didn’t respond, he concluded, “You didn’t, did you?”

A slight shake of her head was the only answer.

“I see.” Garak sat back a bit, folded his arms comfortably across his chest, and regarded her appraisingly.

His guest shifted self-consciously. “You see now why I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Benjamin about this. Or Odo. Or Kira!”

He chuckled and agreed, “Absolutely not Kira!”

Then, Jadzia blurted in a rush, “I can’t get that imaginary affair out of my mind, and I wonder if the real thing would be as wonderful!”

“Hmm,” he uttered pensively. “I have heard it said that you are romantically adventurous, and irresistibly drawn to exotic men.”

She blushed, and her pink cheeks set off those blue eyes even more enchantingly.

“Go on. Say it.” Garak sounded slightly amused, but sincerely supportive.

She met his eyes earnestly. “I’d like to really talk to Gul Dukat about it. How do you think he’d react if I went to see him and told him about all this?”

He eyed her tolerantly, and confirmed, “He’d want to make the experience as real for him as it already was for you, my dear. He’s enraptured by mammalian women, and he’d certainly never turn down one as lovely as you.”

“Does this seem awfully foolish to you?”

“Not if it’s what you really want.”

Garak knew Dukat all too well. The gul was delighted to hear about the surreal affair that Dax had had, but that he hadn’t. And he was blatantly eager to “make her dream come true.”

Dukat was, indeed, the legendary tender, creative lover that he was reputed to be. But there was a discovery that made the hairs on Jadzia’s neck stand on end: though she’d never before lain with a Cardassian in reality, there were certain species-specific anatomical details that she somehow already knew. It was highly unlikely that Odo or Sisko would have been aware of them, so the information could only have come from Garak, subliminally, during their peculiar group-link, and most likely during her “dream affair” with Dukat. She promised herself that when she returned to DS9, she would tell Garak about it. The fact of the subconscious transmission of such relevant information would undoubtedly intrigue him, and she felt that she owed him a great deal for all of this: not only for the information, but also for his sympathy and helpful advice.

Meanwhile, Dukat wondered how Jadzia had explained her long-term absence from her duties aboard DS9.

“I simply told Benjamin I needed a leave-of-absence for a few months, and I stubbornly refused to tell him why. He knows me well enough to know that when I insist upon keeping my own counsel, he can’t persuade me to tell. He probably just assumes that I’m back on Trill, taking care of personal family business.”

Several months later, Jadzia was with Dukat when Damar called his commander to the bridge of their warship. She followed.

“I performed a routine scan of Empok Nor, as prescribed by standing orders for whenever we’re in the vicinity, and the situation there, static for so very long, has now changed dramatically,” Damar reported, upon their arrival.

“How so?” demanded Dukat.

“The three soldiers that we left there in stasis no longer are; they are dead. There are eight additional dead bodies aboard: one Bolian, one Ferengi, and six humans. Plus, there is one Cardassian: alive.”

The gul frowned. “Prepare a boarding party at once. Include you and me.”

The legate nodded.

“I’m going with you,” Jadzia stated flatly.

“I don’t think so,” declared Dukat.

“Six humans? One Ferengi? I might know those people. I’m going,” she insisted.

“Oh, very well,” Dukat allowed with a sigh, inwardly concurring with Sisko’s assessment of Dax’s stubbornness.

Jadzia knelt sadly beside the corpses of Chief Miles O’Brien and Cadet Nog. “Who would do this? And why were my friends even here??”

Ignoring her questions, Damar reported to Dukat, “Their necks were broken.”

“Were the other casualties all dispatched in the same manner?”

“Negative. According to Glinn Dalor, several were shot, one was stabbed, another was thrown to her death from a fair height.”

“Where’s the living Cardassian?”

“Right here.”

They spun, and beheld Garak, gazing at them with an unholy gleam in his eyes.

“Garak!” Jadzia surged forward, delighted but amazed to see him.

“Garak!” Dukat sneered, disgusted at the sight of his long-term nemesis. “Arrest him,” he instructed Damar, who obediently seized the newcomer’s arm.

“No!” Jadzia was shocked. “Why???”

“Who do you think broke their necks?” Dukat indicated her deceased friends.

“You don’t know that for sure!”

Their argument was diversion enough for Garak to initiate a struggle with Damar. With a growl, Dukat launched himself into it, and the two of them managed to subdue their captive. The four beamed back aboard.

Jadzia paced and worried that Dukat and Damar might be mistreating Garak. They had steadfastly refused her pleas to be present for the interrogation, and she had long known of Dukat’s enmity toward Garak.

So she was tremendously surprised and relieved when she was summoned to the interrogation room in relatively short order.

Until she saw the unholy gleam in the eyes of Dukat and Damar, which matched that within those of Garak.

Jadzia remained hesitantly near the closed door, no longer so eager to fully enter the room.

“Come here, my dear,” Dukat invited, but there was something unsavory in his tone and expression.

“Don’t be shy,” urged Damar boldly, heedless of any possibility of giving offense to Dukat, by being forward with the latter’s “comfort woman.” And, surprisingly, Dukat exhibited no offense.

“Garak? What’s going on?” Jadzia asked uncertainly, falling back on her greater trust for her fellow DS9 resident.

“Oh, do approach, my dear. Shall I show you how I broke O’Brien’s neck? Shall I tell you of how very much I enjoyed it? And the Ferengi! Such an entertaining species overall, and particularly so in an individual that young.”

“Why…why would you have done this??”

“Well, because of having discovered the delirious thrill of killing several of the others, of course! I so enjoyed killing two of the three soldiers when they came out of stasis; alas, the other had already died while in stasis. And, unfortunately, those two soldiers had already killed several of the humans and the Bolian before I had a chance to do so. But the human that I stabbed…that felt so good that I wanted to do something even more personal to O’Brien and Nog, something with my own bare hands, without a weapon in the way between my flesh and theirs. And now I’d like to do something just as personal between my flesh and yours.” Garak began to slowly approach. To Jadzia’s profound dismay, so did Dukat and Damar.

Thinking quickly, and without hesitation, Jadzia boldly suggested, “If you want to do something personal with nothing between my flesh and yours, I can offer you something a lot more enjoyable than merely killing me.” So saying, she whipped off her clothing with impressive rapidity. Having been with Dukat multiple times before, Jadzia now zeroed in on him as her best option for surviving this. She threw her arms around him and kissed him passionately for all she was worth, hoping desperately for the kiss not to be interrupted by having her neck broken by either Garak or Damar. Her relief was palpable when, instead of her neck, parts of her body well below it were eagerly groped by two pairs of hands from either side of her and Dukat.

It wasn’t exactly a rape, for she had invited it, although under duress, but it certainly wasn’t gentle. Not even from Dukat. All three men were rough and violent with her. When it was through, she was bloodied badly enough for her to legitimately request and receive medical attention. Whereupon Jadzia availed herself of the opportunity to tell the nonplussed female Cardassian doctor about the uncharacteristic behavior of the three males.

The doctor easily deduced the existence of the neurotoxin in their systems, being fully aware of what her species had been doing aboard Empok Nor before abandoning it years earlier, produced the neutralizing agent, and sent Cardassian male guards to surreptitiously sneak up and inject each of the afflicted. Within short order, all three were cured and profoundly abashed at what they’d done.

Jadzia was none too happy to again be summoned to that same small room to face the three men. But she was profoundly relieved to see that their expressions were decidedly different from what they had previously been. Guilt, shame, remorse, self-loathing, even sheepishness warred across all three Cardassian faces.

Dukat’s apology came first. “My dear, I can’t begin to express how sorry I am for what we’ve done! I’ve never before been rough with a woman. And I’ve treasured my time with you throughout these months; for me to abuse you in such an obscene manner, and to allow others to do so as well, now sullies the precious memories I have of our closeness! Drugged or not, I can scarcely believe that I was capable of mistreating you!”

“I understand. Really,” she said shakily. “I don’t hold it against you.”

“I apologize, too,” offered Damar, his voice gruff with shame. “I’ve never before taken liberties with a comfort woman belonging to Gul Dukat. I can’t imagine what possessed me.”

Embarrassed as well, Jadzia was waving away his somewhat skewed apology. “I get it; don’t worry about it; I know you couldn’t help it.”

“My dear,” said Garak softly. “I truly so deeply regret….”

Overwhelmed with their humiliation and also her own, Jadzia waved more emphatically. “You don’t have to say it. It’s all right.” Her gaze switched to Dukat, and she hesitantly said, “But it’s time for me to go. I must return to my duties.”

The gul was shaking his head in desolation.

She anticipated him, and hastened to say, “No, not just because of this! It really is time! I never intended to stay longer than this, in any case.”

Dukat looked profoundly saddened, but then turned a hostile expression to Garak. “But as for you….”

Again, Jadzia anticipated and side-tracked him. “No, Garak must return to DS9 with me.”

“Why?” Dukat actually snarled. “All of this is his fault! He infected us!” His eyes widened in sudden persuasive inspiration. “And he murdered several of your people!”

Jadzia overturned his efforts smoothly. “Which is why he must return with me to DS9. As my prisoner.”

All three men instantly knew that Garak would not be a prisoner, that the Federation would be lenient due to the circumstances, and that Dax was manipulating them. But neither Dukat nor Damar could think of a valid objection or convincing accusation that the clever Dax couldn’t sidestep, and Garak was doing a superb job of suppressing a grin.

“Very well,” Dukat relented reluctantly.

On their way to Dukat’s transporter room a short time later, with the ship keeping station near DS9, Garak murmured to Jadzia, “Why are you rescuing me? Dukat would like to kill me in any case. And after what I did to you….”

“Let’s just say I owe you.”

“I don’t see how.”

“I’ll tell you later,” she whispered.