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"Oh, shut up Joran."

Ezri mumbled to herself. He had never been this vocal before, well, before the Rite of Emergence. Which wasn't a mistake. He did help her catch the killer, not that Benjamin or the others would ever know. That would not be a fun conversation. 'Why no, Ben, I didn't use what I learned in Forensic Psychology, I just used Joran.' It would go so well. But now? Now she had to be vigilant. Ezri wouldn't be able to bury his personality as deeply as Curzon or Jadzia. And Ezri didn't have training in the first place. She didn't want to accidentally almost stab someone with a butter knife again. Talk about embarrassing. Benjamin hadn't been exactly understanding when that happened. Thank goodness Odo had come along, and taken the knife out of her hand before something really bad had happened.

Ezri had intended to take a walk along the Promenade, clear her head. That was until she wasn't in the Promenade anymore. She was in a bar. And it wasn't Quark's. It was....Ezri took a few steps toward a console. The U.S.S. Enterprise? Oh and they were at warp. The Trill put a hand on her stomach and another on her temple trying to fight back the wave of nausea and flashes of Torias' shuttle accident. Dying. Crashing. Oh no.

"Okay Ezri, you can figure this out. Just start by not barfing all over the security guard eating his lunch. He wouldn't appreciate that at all."

Ezri talked to herself.

"One. Wormhole aliens? Two. Spacial phenomenon? Three. I could just be going nuts. That's my clinical assessment of myself."

Ezri closed her eyes, trying to sort through eight other lifetimes of memories to remember if anyone served or visited the Enterprise D. That was....Curzon or Jadzia's time? Maybe she was just hallucinating memories. Did that happen? Maybe she should qualify that. Did that happen to her? It probably didn't happen to another other Joined Trill. That's Ezri, nothing easy for Ezri.

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He nodded, accepting that, and listened.

Then he thought about the answer to her question. Slowly, he opened the backpack and brought out one solitary notebook. While it was obvious there was more, it had been in the backpack and therefore he had answered her question. He opened the notebook to a blank page and wrote Ezri at the top of it.

"I'm going to ask for a list of your previous hosts for my next question."

Ezri shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't answer that. Not until I talk to the Captain. Starfleet gets awfully upset when time lines get tangled--especially when one of them is walking around in 2366. We don't want to bump into them---and then I'll have to do paperwork. Think of something else."

Dax looked at the notebook, not able to stifle back a smile. Quark might have a new best friend.

"I'm not Starfleet. The Klingon Security Guard even said we don't have to follow your Prime Directive. So my question is still valid."

Gotta try the loophole first.

"Nice try. But I still am. And the ship is Starfleet. Also, we're in a public place where anyone could overhear. Wait. Klingon security guard?"

Oh no. Oh no no no. That was too cruel.

"We could go back to my room if it would make you feel better. And that's another question. I haven't asked mine yet."

So he doesn't answer the question, not realising it's importance to her.

It didn't matter. There was only one person it could be. And they were on the Enterprise. Damn it Q. That wasn't fair. And that meant meeting with Captain Picard to be...well...beyond necessary. And she needed to find an alternate way to the Bridge. Maybe if she was really really lucky, he wouldn't be on duty.

Or she could just crawl through the jefferies tubes. Personally, she liked that option better.

"Nope." Ezri waved a finger at him. "Try again."

He sighed and screwed up his face thinking. "How many spots do you have?" It was a stupid question but it was meant to be since he was annoyed that she wouldn't answer his previous one.

"I never counted. Probably around 700. When I get cleared from sickbay I'll ask them to use a medical tricorder to count and let you know. Now, why don't you show me everything that's in the bag."

Dax got up for a moment, going to the replicator. "Do you want anything to drink--that doesn't count as another question."

Henry chuckles at the extra clause to her last sentence. "Hot cocoa with cinnamon if you don't mind. And no. If you can refuse my questions, I can refuse yours. My bag is private." At least until he knows you better. "Try again."

But he did write down about the spots on her specific page of the notebook.

"Two hot chocolates with cinnamon." Maybe she'd like it. It was better than standing there and guessing what she wanted to drink. The drinks materialized and she brought them over to the table.

"Alright, makes sense. How are you doing without your parents here?"

Henry nodded his thanks and took a sip from his drink. It wasn't the same as Granny's, obviously, but it wasn't bad.

"No. Try again." It might make it very obvious to the shrink, but he wasn't talking about his family.

Interesting. Ezri tried a slightly different approach. They had something to work toward at least. She wouldn't push. Pushing never got anywhere. She wasn't her mother.

" Have you made any friends here?"

Dax took a sip of her hot chocolate. It wasn't bad. It wasn't blood wine. Pretty much anything t hat wasn't Klingon was good. Or at least not revolting. And was probably cooked.

Friends. That was a safe enough topic. "Yeah. Met two other kids." Okay. His turn. But what to ask?

"Can't think of anything else to ask since you won't answer the interesting stuff."

"You can ask fun stuff, just not the names of my other hosts. Why do joined Trills interest you so much?"

All of his questions, or rather, the questions Henry deemed interesting, were about the symbiont. What was it about Dax that drew him to it?

"Everything new interests me. I've never met a joined Trill before. And when you meet someone, you get more accurate information than what the computer can provide."

Yes, he'd answered the question before asking one. He'd just have to ask two. "What about the name of the symbiont then? Or is that also off limits?" That counted as one question if it was answered. As for the other one. "Tell me more about then. What about your family?"

Oh this kid was persistent.That question was even worse than the first. But, maybe there was a way around it. "Well, I can't tell you the symbiont's name, but why dont tell you a little bit about some of my previous hosts--without their names, and my family. How does that sound?"

Ezri thought, who to start with. No, not you Joran, go away. Definitely not Curzon. Besides being in his time period, he was rather particular. It wouldn't be that hard for the boy to do a computer search for curmudgeonly old skirt-chasing Trill who also happened to be an Ambassador.

Alright, fine. You win.

"I was a pianist once. Well, not just the piano, that was just my speciality. But I went to school for music."

Henry nodded and smiled, taking a small drink and then getting ready to take notes.

Pianist. Musician. He wrote. Perhaps Ezri would give him enough information that he could find out who she was from the computer.

She didn't want to trick the boy--but Ezri was a little bit glad that Joran wasn't connected to Dax on the computers. He was still covered up. The forgotten host. No wonder he's so angry....well, that and because he enjoys killing people. He was sick, and didn't deserve to be forgotten. Joran was a part of Dax. It wasn't fair.

"And my family. That's a pretty safe topic. Well, as safe as family gets. My family has a perguim mining operation in the Sapporos system. We don't really get along. I actually joined Starfleet to get out of the house--and the family buisness, which everyone seemed to think I should join. The entire family is married to it, whether they want it or not."

Henry wrote all that down as well in his own note form, that really didn't make much sense due to the lack of sentences and different colours but he'd write it up neater later.

Then he waited because it was her turn to ask. He didn't have much to add about family, not wanting to talk about his own.

"What do you do here to keep occupied? I already know you've practically devoured the Starfleet database," Ezri chided playfully, stirring the cinnamon stick in the mug. This was so much better than raktajino. She had no idea how Jadzia and Curzon could stomach it much less like it. It was disgusting.

Henry looked a little sheepish. He'd locked himself away for three weeks prior to this after all.

"Just that really. Not much to do here when there's not much to explore."

"There's plenty to do here.It's a Starship. I mean, I know you can't go to the bridge,but there's the arboretum, the holodecks. I think there are classes here too for the other children. Sure, it's not fun, but you could get a 24th century education." Dax gave Henry a wink.

"So, what's the real reason you haven't been doing things?"

"It's my turn to ask." He frowned, not wanting to answer that question and so deflecting with the rules.

"Do you think you could show me the bridge sometime since you're Starfleet?"

"Tell you what. Why dont we go down to the holodeck? I can pull up a simulation of the bridge and we can have a little fun. Maybe get a piloting lesson?"

Henry could do worse things than get a piloting lesson from a professional pilot. And since they were on the holodeck Torias couldn't crash.

Oh maybe piloting was a bad idea.....

"Yeah, okay." That sounded like fun. "Maybe you could teach me how to use it." He had ideas for the holodeck since he learnt about them but he didn't know how to make them yet.

He put his notebook back in his bag and closed it up, finishing his drink.