The BLTS Archive - Need to Be Needed
by Pixie Child (glitery_insane_pixie_child@yahoo.ca)

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Published: 08-28-03

Updated: 08-28-03

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I'm not sure when or why it happened. I suppose it was about a month
after Nerys died and I threw myself into my work. Sisko and Dax tried
a few times to get me to attend social events with them, but 
eventually gave up. After that, I had no direct humanoid contact other
then the ones I'd throw in the brig.

Then one day Lwaxana Troi came to the station, determined to change
that. I became like some pathetic humanoid with a desperate need for
affection, acting like one of those animals humans have (dogs?) that
followed her around everywhere she went.

So when she left for Betazed, I went with her.

She loves me, I know. She trusts me, too. I am the only one who knows
that her natural hair colour isn't brown, (other then her daughter)
and that she hates her first name. She said it's too long, and royal,
so she has me call her Lawx, unless she's had a bad day.

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"Lawx..." I try, but she just glares at me sharply.

"Don't you dare address me so disrespectfully! My name is Lwaxana
Troi, daughter to the Fifth House and heir to the Holy Rings of
Betazed!"

A Bolian crystal is hurled at me, and I duck it. "Damn you, Odo!"
Lwaxana shrieks at me and throws a framed photo -one of her, Deanna,
Deanna's beau (William Riker) and I- at my face. I take a quick step
to the left to avoid contact. I know I could shift my molecular
cohesion and allow it to pass through me, but I learned the first time
around that it just aggravates her more. "You're useless! I must have
been out of my mind when I asked you to come here!" She hurls herself
at me and begins pounding on my chest, forcing me back a few steps.
"You stupid, useless shapeshifter!"

"Lwaxana," I try, but she is having none of it.

"Shut up! Who gave permission to speak in my presence?" She lifts the
gold-tinged orb I got her last year for her birthday and throws it at
the wall, and it breaks into thousands of tiny shards. Lwax's eyes go
wide and fill with tears. "Oh, Odo, I'm sorry." She starts gasping for
air and falls to the floor as tears fall from her eyes in a downpour,
and I pull her into a tight embrace.

"Shh, it's okay, Lawx. See? Neither of us is hurt." I begin to rub
circles on her back and continue to hold her. "That's all that
matters."

"I do love you, Odo. It's just sometimes I get so crazy..."

"Shh." I carry her to out room and put her to bed, not at all
surprised to find that she is already asleep. She looks so peaceful,
so calm. And I know I will never leave her, because who knows what she
might do to herself or someone else if I did. She needs me. And I need
to be needed.

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The End