“You all right?” Kira asked.
He turned and looked at her, smiling faintly. “Just needed a moment.”
Kira smiled back. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I’ll rejoin the others.”
“No, stay,” Sisko said. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He resumed watching the approaching figures. Kira followed his gaze. “Who’s that?”
Sisko folded his arms and leaned with his left shoulder against the tree. “No idea. But it looks like we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Rebecca’s beautiful, by the way,” Kira said. “She looks just like you, too.”
“Kasidy says the same thing, but I don’t see it.”
Kira chuckled. “I think parents seldom do.”
“And she’s growing so fast, Nerys,” Sisko said. “So many of the things that daunted me when Jake was a baby don’t even faze me this time around, but I’d completely forgotten how fast they grow as people. I see her changing every day. Every day.”
“It’s too bad your father and sister couldn’t stay longer.”
Sisko nodded. “I think they would have liked to, but Judith had a career to get back to, and I think my father was eager to try some new ideas in his restaurant using Bajoran ingredients…and to put a his own twist on some Bajoran dishes.”
“Let me guess…Creole hasperat?”
“Don’t laugh. He’s convinced he’s on to something,” Sisko told her.
“Have you heard from Jake?”
“Not for a couple of weeks, which is unusual. He was sending messages every day the first week, describing his travels down the Yolja River. Then nothing. But he’s a grown man. He’ll check in when he has a chance, or when he has something he wants to tell me.”
Sisko fell silent for a moment too long, because Kira then said: “You sure you’re all right?”
He continued watching the walkers. They were still too far away to see clearly, but he thought they were carrying large backbacks. Hikers, maybe?
“I keep thinking about how close I was to missing it all,” he admitted. “Seeing my son again. My wife. Being there as my daughter came into the world, hearing her newborn voice, holding her tiny body in my arms, watching her open her eyes for the first time. And everything that’s happened since. But even when I was with the Prophets, outside the universe, outside of time, separated from everything that made me human…there was always this thread, this lifeline connecting me to the people I love.”
“And now…?”
“Now that thread is running in the other direction, and I can feel the tug. Part of me is still there, Nerys, with Them, in the Temple.”
Kira stared at him for a long moment. “You’re going back to Them, aren’t you?”
“No,” Sisko said quietly. “I’m where I belong now. Where I need to be. For my family, for myself, and for Them. This place and time, what’s happening out there…” He nodded in the general direction of sky. “…they’re important to the Prophets.”
“Benjamin,” Kira said, “why are you telling me this?”
“Because you need to be ready for what’s coming, Nerys. We all do.”
“What exactly is coming?” she asked. “If you know something—”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Sisko said, turning to meet her eyes. “I don’t have any special insight into the Eav-oq, or the Ascendants, or anything else the new day may bring. All I can tell you is that the Prophets’ interest in the linear plane has sometimes led them to intercede directly, but always at a cost…and to their grief.” At Kira’s concerned frown, he added, “There’s little more I can tell you…except maybe to say that whatever comes next, how it unfolds will be up to the people gathered here, at this moment, and those whom we trust the most.”
He could tell from the way she searched his face that she had a thousand questions, and he wished he had answers he could offer that were less vague than those he’d just given. But she also seemed to accept that it was all he had, and in the end, Kira’s faith in Them, and her trust in him, were all she really needed. He just hoped neither of them were misplaced.
She smiled again. “Whatever comes, we’ll be ready,” she told him reassuringly.
No. We won’t.
“Nerys?”
Sisko and Kira both turned. Kasidy was walking toward them from the house.
“There’s a comm for you from the station,” she explained. “It’s Ro. She says it’s urgent.”
“Take it in the study,” Sisko told Kira. She nodded her thanks and marched back to the house.
Kasidy walked the rest of the way toward him and took his hand. “Everything okay?”
“You tell me,” Sisko said good-naturedly. “How was dinner?”
“A meal fit for a kai,” Kas declared. “Exquisite in preparation, presentation, and consumption. The Emissary’s cooking lights the way.”
“Kiss-up,” Sisko accused.
“Hey, they get to leave,” she said, nodding back toward their guests. “I have to live here.”
He took her in his arms. “It’s so nice to know I can rely on unbiased feedback.”
“Oh, shut up,” Kasidy said, and they kissed. Softly at first, the feather-brush tingle of lips meeting, then pressing into something deeper as the world around them seemed to recede.
He held her close, unwilling to let the moment to end, knowing it had to.
Kasidy slowly pulled away, smiling up at him. Her eyes went past him, and then widened. “Jake…?”
Sisko turned. Trudging toward them less than fifty meters away now, were the hikers. And, sure enough, one of them, he saw, was his son.
“Jake-o,” Sisko whispered.
Grinning from ear to ear, Jake jogged the rest of the way, embracing his father. His travelling companion, a young woman, Sisko now realized, slowed as she approached.
“Jake, what are you doing here?”
“Sorry I didn’t call ahead,” Jake said, disengaging from the hug so he could embrace Kasidy. “But I wanted to surprise you.” Then he noticed the small group gathered on the front porch. “Wow, uh, I didn’t think you guys would have company this early. I hope we’re not interrupting anything…”
“We were just finishing,” Sisko said with a huge smile of his own, unable to contain the joy he felt at having his son with him again.
“So what brings you back?” Kasidy asked, her eyes smiling toward Jake’s companion.
“There’s someone I wanted you to meet,” Jake turned to the young woman, took her hand, and stood with her facing them. She was Bajoran, Sisko saw, and lovely. The way she smiled, there was something familiar about her…
“Dad, Kas,” Jake began, “I’d like you to meet Azeni Korena.”
Sisko blinked. Korena?
“It’s wonderful to meet you,” she told Sisko, then turned her smile on Kasidy. “Both of you.”
“Did…did you say Korena?” Sisko asked.
“Yeah,” Jake said, his grin a light-year wide. “My wife. We just got married.”
Once the initial shock had worn off, Sisko embraced his daughter-in-law— My daughter-in-law!—bearly able to speak past the elation he felt. Kasidy was equally jubilant, and began bombarding the young couple with questions as she led them back to the house, where introductions were made, and congratulations offered. Korena seemed a little shocked to find Bajor’s First Minister and former kai among the well-wishers, but recovered quickly. As the sun crept over the horizon, the mood in the Sisko house was merry once again.
Jake followed as Kasidy led Korena inside to look in on Rebecca in the nursery, leaving Sisko to stare after them in amazement. His guests had gone from congratulating the young couple to congratulating him,Vaughn pouring another round of groszand offering a toast that Sisko barely heard.
Married,Sisko thought. To the same woman I once met in an alternate future. A future Jake doesn’t even remember.