Chapter Text
Jadzia woke unexpectedly.
"What the-?" Why wasn't she dead? This didn't look like any afterlife she'd ever heard of. It looked like an infirmary.
"Oh, you're awake!" What she assumed was a doctor hurried over, smiling, tentacles from their head reaching for her. "We repaired all your systems, we had to help your secondary brain regrow more quickly."
"My what?" She managed. The alien gestured to her stomach. "My… in my pouch?"
"Yes. It's fully reformed."
"I don't- Where did you find me?"
"Drifting in space, in a small container. You were barely alive but we managed to bring you back. Would you like to return to your people? We're meeting with a ship in a few days that's headed to the Alpha quadrant."
"Yes, please, thank you."
"I just need to know your name."
"Jadzia Dax." She was still Jadzia Dax. She'd died, Julian must have cut too close to Dax when removing sym and sy started to regrow. She didn't remember Sto-Vo-Kor. She put a hand to Dax and remembered. "Doctor." She stopped them partway to the door. "My pregnancy. I was… in the beginning of producing a baby?"
"I'm sorry, that tissue had been without oxygen too long."
"Okay." She must be in shock, unable to process coming back to life and losing her baby.
The ship docked and Jadzia took a deep breath. Time to tell her friends she wasn't really dead. She stepped into the station and glanced around. Dax writhed and she paused to put a hand on her stomach, confused about what sy was reacting to when she remembered a young Trill woman looking in the mirror in hospital patient clothes, cutting her own hair with a laser scalpel, blue eyes that were both her own and not. Telling her mother - whose mother? - "It's me, Curzon" over subspace - what was happening? - Meeting Ben and Jake and Joseph Sisko, finding a Bajoran Orb. Meeting everyone on DS9. Standing on her head because it helped Emony focus but only getting a headache. Getting promoted to lieutenant junior grade and not feeling like she'd earned it or was ready to be counselor of a space station during a war. Kissing Julian Bashir.
"Jadzia?!" Julian was by her side, and so was the young woman, the new host to Dax. Jadzia couldn't speak.
"Hi." The young woman said softly. "I'm Ezri. We need to go to sick bay." Jadzia nodded, still catching up on all the memories she'd apparently missed while dead, and Ezri's childhood. She walked with them on auto-pilot. Julian was talking, Ezri was talking less.
After a few hours they had a diagnosis. Somehow both Daxes were in telepathic communication with each other. The Trill had just nodded, sitting across from each other on biobeds, the memory transference had ended and they were now receiving each other's thoughts. It was unlike anything Jadzia had ever experienced before.
"Same here." Ezri muttered. Jadzia suddenly wondered about telling everyone on the station what had happened.
"Was that your thought or mine?" She asked.
"Does it matter?" Ezri replied as her thoughts answered the question, it didn't matter who thought it, they had to discuss it and do something about it. It would make sense to tell Benjamin and Worf first. Ben already knew she was back on the station, she'd informed him while the trio headed to the infirmary. Jadzia rubbed her temple. When the two of them thought about the same topic it was hard to tell who's thoughts were whose. So, Benjamin already knew and would be down as soon as he could be. How to tell Worf she was alive?
"I could do it if you want." Ezri offered.
“If you could just call him down here?” Jadzia asked, not even sure what she was going to say. Ezri nodded and opened a comlink.
“Dax to Worf.”
“Worf here.”
“Your presence is required in the infirmary.”
“The infirmary? Why?” He asked.
“You need to see this. As soon as you can.” Ezri replied. Jadzia got a few quick memories of Worf not being very welcoming to Ezri.
“Acknowledged. I will be there in about 10 minutes. Worf out.”
“Thanks. Sorry about him.” Jadzia said.
“He’s grieving.” Ezri shrugged, but Jadzia knew from her memories that his treatment of Ezri hurt her.
“Oh, Julian, you may want to have some type of hypospray ready, I’m not sure how Worf is going to react to seeing me again.” Jadzia called towards the man, frowning at his computer. He didn’t look up. She smiled and walked over. “Julian. Julian Bashir.” That got his attention.
“Sorry, yes? I was just analyzing-”
“Julian,” Jadzia interrupted, “Worf is going to be here in a few minutes and I’m not sure how he’s going to react to seeing me again. You may want to prepare for him to faint or something.” A mental image of Worf falling over, stiff as a bat'leth entered her mind. She glanced over at Ezri to find her trying to hide a smile.
“Sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to.”
Jadzia had to stop herself from leaping into her husband’s arms when she saw him again, she couldn’t stop smiling and would probably start to cry soon. He stared at her for at least 30 seconds (by Ezri’s count), then turned to Ezri and demanded an explanation.
“Who is this and why did you call me here? Where is Doctor Bashir?”
“Sorry, here I am.” Bashir exited his office. “This is Jadzia. She’s not a clone or Changeling or anything.”
“Jadzia is in Sto-Vo-Kor.” Worf declared.
“Worf, I promise you, it’s me. I woke up on an alien ship in the Gamma Quadrant being told I was found almost dead, and they were able to help Dax regenerate.” Jadzia explained. “I don’t remember Sto-Vo-Kor, but I trust that you warned them I was coming.” She wiped her eyes. He regarded her in silence before turning to Ezri again.
“Why are you here?”
“Worf-” Jadzia objected, but Ezri held up a hand, remembering other conversations with Worf she’d successfully had.
“Jadzia and the aliens who helped her were able to regrow Dax with all memories from previous hosts intact. When she arrived at the station, her Dax and mine telepathically linked or something” Jadzia wondered if they’d have to tell the Symbiosis Commission about that and Ezri crossed her arms as she continued summarizing “and we started receiving each other’s memories. I remembered waking up, wondering why I wasn’t dead.” The Trill locked gazes. “She remembered cutting her own hair in the hopes of recognizing herself in the mirror, not another previous host. When it started to happen I headed here, but on the way I found Jadzia on the Promenade, so I called Julian as a friendly face and to figure out what was going on. And we’re still receiving each other’s memories, as they’re made.”
“I know there’s probably not much I can do to convince you that I am who I say I am.” Jadzia sighed.
“If Doctor Bashir and Counselor Dax say it is you, I believe you all. My par’Mach’kai.” He rumbled, approaching her.
“Oh, Worf!” She ran into his arms, crying freely. One of them remembered her literally jumping into his arms on the Defiant. He held her close, almost too tight, but he was always so careful with her.
“Hey, Old Man.” Benjamin Sisko greeted. “Old Man. Good to see you.” Ezri’s thoughts informed Jadzia that Sisko was greeting both of them.
“You have two Dax here and neither one of us is the old man.” Ezri replied. Dax? One of them wondered. Daxes? Daxi? They’d solve that question later, there had to be grammatical precedent on Trill. The women jointly informed Sisko of what happened, Worf and Jadzia in constant physical contact.
“That sounds like a very interesting race you ran into.” He commented when they were done.
“Yes, but they were very clear about their dislike of meeting other species when not volunteering their help. They don’t want to be taken advantage of.” Jadzia replied.
“What’s your plan for announcing your return?”
“I don’t have one.” She shrugged, imagining calling person after person to sickbay to tell them she was alive versus doing something dramatic like going to Quark’s and standing on the bar.
“I’ll stay here with you if you want.” Ezri offered pointedly. Apparently the new host hadn’t gotten to the ‘relax and have fun’ part of being joined. Ezri rolled her eyes.
“You really are communicating telepathically.” Benjamin marveled, glancing between them.
"Yeah. I know I'm going to have to discuss things like my job and what we tell Starfleet and Trill, but-"
"It can wait." He assured, wrapping her in a hug.