Sat, 12 Aug 2006 20:08:04 GMT

Jadzia carefully pulled out her tricorder, fliping it open, her fingers pushing gently against the screen.

"Hmm..." She frowned at it before looking over her shoulder at Chief O'Brien, who, after doing his bit for king and country by locating what deck the bear was on, had eloquently decided not to further implicate himself in this.

For the moment.

She'd get him later.

Smiling back at the small device in her hand, she smacked it firmly, making the screen flicker to life and beep obnoxiously.

Much better.

She adjusted the strap on the satchel she was carrying and headed off for the maintenance level in search of Kukalaka.

That was when she almost collided with Major Kira.

To Steal a Teddy Bear... [L - To Members of Deep Space Nine]

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 23:00:07 GMT

Jadzia Dax had planned something...unique. In fact, it seemed to her like something Toben Dax would do for his wife, but that was a different story.

She was planning a surprise for Doctor Bashir.

Not that she should surprise him, since that would only lead him on and make him think of doing things he was definitely too physically exhausted to accomplish at the moment, but then...there were worse things that could happen, and if there was one thing Dax could do and do well, it was stir the pot. Maybe he'd start to boil over and take it as a sign to slow down.

With that in mind, she'd gone down to his quarters with the intention of kidnapping his teddy bear. Yes, she'd heard all about that teddy bear. Kukalaka. It was cute, that was obvious, and Julian adored it--as indicated by the way he turned seven shades of red when she'd found the little fellow in his living room one evening and all but clutched him back from her.

And the aforementioned kidnapping wasn't as horrible as it sounded. She'd give him back....under the right amount of persuasion.

To be honest, she was doing it as an excuse for Julian to take a night off. He'd been pulling double shifts in the Infirmary lately, since the second-shift doctor, Dr. Hanselman, was transferred to the USS Athena. Double shifts--more like double and a half, her mind filled in, considering the paperwork and the number of injured, wounded, and sick Bajoran refugees he had to deal with. On top of day to day station injuries.

Stealing his bear and making him sit through a calming dinner to get said bear back wasn't really all that horrible. The look of exhaustion in his eyes at the lunch they'd shared earlier in the week told her it was far from horrible. Besides, it isn't as though Kukalaka would mind being stolen. Jadzia planned to take excellent care of him for Julian until the good doctor was able to reclaim him later in the week. Hopefully tomorrow evening, but that depended on how long it took Julian to realize that the bear was even being held captive.

Held for ransom, even. Jadzia had cajoled (all right, threatened and chided) Major Kira into helping her create a ransom note and they had decided to organize the theft like a military operation. Right now, Kira was in the Infirmary with Julian, making sure he didn't head back to his quarters any time soon whilst Jadzia, the mastermind behind it all, made her way to those very same quarters and spirited Kukalaka away from his spot across Julian's room. Then she would lay the ransom note on his pillow and leave behind the clues: a piece of stuffing (Replicated, of course), and a single, black leather glove. That accomplished, she would sneak back out of his quarters and put Kukalaka in a very safe place until he was ready to be returned.

Then she would make her way down to the Infirmary, and, after giving the signal to Major Kira that the mission's objective was complete, she'd try to talk Julian into setting a date for dinner tomorrow evening. He'd agree, obviously, since it never took too much talking to "talk him into" anything, but he'd probably stipulate dinner be no more than a brief bite shared in the Infirmary. That was fine, though, and she would agree in kind, knowing that her ransom note--complete with the stipulation of meeting Kukalaka's captor in Quark's at precisely the same time Julian was to meet Jadzia in the Infirmary for dinner--would ensure something a bit more than a brief bite gulped down hurriedly while he was busy filling out paperwork and doing complex math for said paperwork in his head, as was his latest habit during those kinds of dinners in the Infirmary.

The plan was in motion.

At the exact appointed time, synchronized with Kira because it was more fun that way, Jadzia used the override code Julian had given her for his quarters. Why he had given her this code, she didn't know, but that didn't stop it from being useful. The doors opened with a gentle whooshing sound followed by those oh-so-familiar tones, and the Trill stepped inside. Jadzia breathed in deeply. Julian's quarters always smelled so...different from hers. Then again, that could have something to do with the former Cardassian occupant of her quarters and his rather dubious living--and hygienic--habits, but she wasn't willing to focus on that at the moment.

Her eyes swept across the spotless living room, clean replicator, and clutter-free coffee table, the sight making her smile. He was probably too tired to make any mess...or something like that.

She made her way to his bedroom, some small, ironic part of her personality whispering that she'd never gone to this part of his quarters when he was with her and all but invited her to do so, but she wouldn't bat an eyelash at investigating the second he wasn't present. Dax noticed the bed made with crisp white sheets, his blue pajamas laid out neatly on top of his dresser next to a perfectly straight stack of PADDs, the black and teal uniforms he wore every day hanging pencil-straight in his closet, the faint trace of cologne and--was that cleaning solution?--lingering in the air. Her nose crinkled, her expression curious. Jadzia was almost positive Julian didn't wear cleaning solution, although the cologne was most definitely Bashir-ish.

Her mind reviewed what she'd just seen. Clean. Neat. Orderly. The exact opposite of any man working a double- to triple- shift for a two week stretch. Even if that man was as neat as Julian tried to be on occasion.

He couldn't be that impressive.

It seemed one of the Bajoran cleaning ladies had paid him a visit earlier today.

Jadzia looked to the shelf across from Julian's bed, the spot Julian said he always kept Kukalaka. Kukalaka wasn't there.

Alright, maybe Julian moved him. Or the cleaning lady moved him. Or he wasn't there to begin with. That wasn't a problem...

Jadzia investigated the room, looking everywhere she could think of. In the closet, next to the shelves, in the dresser, in the bathroom, in the shower (although why Julian Bashir would have a teddy bear in his shower was truly beyond her), under the bed, under his pillows, in the sock drawer, in the stacking crate bins he kept in his closet containing relics from high school and the Academy as well as phone numbers for old girlfriends she was quite tempted to throw away. Running out of options in the bedroom, she invaded the living room and searched there, under the sofa, on the tables, next to lamps, in hidden spots and crevasses, behind the pillows, behind chairs. Jadzia looked everywhere, tearing Julian's quarters apart.

No bear.

Dax briefly considered the possibility of the doctor throwing Kukalaka away, and then dismissed it as one of the most absurd thing she'd managed to think of in over three hundred years of being alive, except for that one time that Torias...should have listened but thought of something else instead.

...

Either way, Julian loved that bear more than anything, and he'd sooner throw himself out an air lock than throw Kukalaka away.

It was because of this simple fact that Jadzia Dax was starting to get frantic.

Now thoroughly worried that something had happened to Julian's teddy, Jadzia dropped the ransom note on Julian's bed and rushed out of his quarters, heading for the nearest 'lift.

"Lieutenant Dax to Major Kira."

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

Oooooh...Kira did not sound happy. While it was true that Julian could wear most people down to frustration in the span of a few minutes when he felt the need to be a charming show-off, and while it was true that Kira became frustrated at warp speed and rarely managed to sound happy over the comm system anyway, she had only been in the Infirmary for fifteen minutes on a relatively peaceful day and he was far too tired to make a good show of anything anyway.

"I um...Concerning today's earlier assignment. There's seems to be a problem. A large problem, actually. I won't be able to finish it immediately."

She could almost hear Kira blink.

"Alright, Dax, do your best and keep me posted. Kira out."

Dax firmly nodded to no one in particular and headed towards Ops, determined to find that bear and make Julian's week.

And she knew just the person to help her with that, too. Whether he liked it or not.

* * *

As of 1100 hours that morning, Chief Miles Edward O'Brien, Chief of Operations for the Federation Starbase Deep Space Nine, became a wanted man, and there was no where to hide from a very determined Jadzia Dax.

Lieutenant Jadzia Dax

To Steal a Teddy Bear... [L - To Members of Deep Space Nine]