536: Far to Fall

by Fleur Le Marc
80929.0100
Following More Questions Than Answers



-=The Takesian Plains, Bajor=-

Fleur stood in the small kitchen, stirring a large pot of soup. She hadn't made this particular kind of soup in a very long while, because doing so made her so sad.

It was, after all, his favorite.

It would have been impossible for her to count how many bowls of it he had eaten over the years since she'd first met him aboard the space station. As impossible as counting how many beats her heart had skipped every time he smiled at her upon seeing that she'd made it as the "Chef's Special".

Again...

She never cared how her customers complained or asked her to vary the soup selections a little more...Jariel loved that soup, she would make it every day if it pleased him...

...but she had not made it since leaving the Serendipity.

Just the thought of it made her throat hurt with the deep, painful ache that came from trying not to cry.

Today, however, given the items she had on hand, this was the best recipe she could make, and so make it she would.

At least, she contented herself for the moment, she had made good use of her time recently, despite how she still felt.

By this point, they could feed five hundred people over the course of a day, between this location and the second kitchen that had been set up across town with one of the Ranjens overseeing it.

Women from all over the camps would come in to volunteer to help with the cooking, and Fleur found that even though she hadn't said much or tried to do so, she had ended up meeting many people who now called her their friend.

The heart of the Bajoran people astounded her. Together, they had accomplished so much, so quickly.

They worked, worked, and worked some more. They made use of absolutely every scrap of materials, and they went farther, faster and with less than anyone she had ever seen. She knew that no matter what happened in her life from this point on that she had been changed by this experience already. The people, and this place, would always be a part of her now.

Her hands-on participation in the construction work had changed Fleur considerably physically as well as emotionally. She now sported streaks of highlights in her hair from the intense glare of the sun. Her skin was tan and her body, which had been tiny and thin before was now tiny and powerful. New muscles were apparent in her arms and legs from the strenuous physical work she had undertaken.

She found the physical exertion to be even more of a comfort to her, in the darkest moments of loneliness than the familiar surrounds of the kitchen.

When her mind drifted to thoughts she would rather not entertain, of things that she knew could not be, she would turn again to action. She refused to allow herself the luxury of self-pity or regret.

There was no time for these things, with precious children like Tress and Pace to feed, clothe, and build a town for.

"Where would you like the sacks of flour to go, Fleur?" Pace asked, as he hefted two bags, one over each shoulder.

The boy, merely sixteen, had undergone quite a transformation himself in the time since Fleur had arrived.

Once receiving proper nutrition, he sprouted. His shoulders broadened, his form filled in, and he looked at last like a healthy young man and not a suit of clothes hung out on a thin, wiry hanger.

"Please put them in the pantry for me, thank you." Fleur directed. "The bread is almost ready to..." the bell on the timer sounded, interrupting her. "Is ready to come out of the oven, I will put the flour into the canisters later." She reached into the oven and pulled out the last of the day's baking.

"It smells so good," Pace murmured. "I'm so hungry I could eat an entire loaf of your bread, Fleur."

"You will eat until you are full, I promise you I made enough food for an army from the last shipment of supplies." Fleur pointed to the refrigeration unit, which was now running on actual power, and not a generator any longer. "You should see what is in there."

"I would love to, but I have to get back soon. I just hope that I can sneak past Itsa. No matter where I go anymore, she finds me." He shrugged.

"She adores you, Pace,"

The boy blushed profusely at the thought and shuffled his feet. "Nah."

"She's a sweet girl, no? Tell me, do you like her?"

"I don't have time to like her," Pace sighed. "Prylar Delle is all over me. Between taking care of Tress and my school work and all the work to be done around here..."

"Where is Tress? She must be getting hungry too."

"She's with the other children. Playing, in the yard,"

Suddenly, Fleur's eyes flashed concern. "Where in the yard?"

"In the back, over by the,"

"Mon Dieu, they should not be back there, I told the Ranjens that they were going to start," Fleur's breath deserted her, and she began to untie her apron. A sense of dread overtook her, and she tossed the apron onto the counter and switched the heat to the stove off. "Find Steila. Ask her to stay here until I get back, then find me out there. Hurry, Pace."

She ran as fast as she could go toward the crowd of children, who were singing and playing games of pretend in between the remains of storm-trashed trees.

"Where is Gillan Tress?" Fleur asked the oldest child she could find. "The baby?"

"She was with Kail the last time I saw her," The boy answered, "Why, what is wrong, Miss Fleur?"

"The wells," Fleur said, running off in the direction the boy had pointed. "They started digging the new wells last night and I told-" she took off as fast as she could go, and began calling Tress's name at the top of her lungs. As many children as she asked, no one seemed to know where the baby was.

It was then that she heard the sound of a faint, familiar cry, and she stopped short as she teetered precariously over the edge of the deep, unmarked well.

"Oh, God, please," Fleur cried, jumping back and dropping to her knees. "No."

Pace came upon Fleur's location, and he screamed Tress's name as he realized what had happened. "I don't understand, they were supposed to be watching her,"

"Go and get Drial Deir, and anyone else you can find. They have to bring rope, we have to get her out," Fleur gasped, as she leaned over the edge and looked down into the hole. "RUN!" She shouted to shake the frozen Pace from his shock. "NOW!"

"Tressie, it's all right, it's all right," Fleur called to the child, who cried softly below the surface. Fleur could not see how far down the shaft had gone, but she could see that the baby had apparently fallen in such a way that her arms and legs were trapped, she was bent over in the middle and that had stopped her from falling to the bottom of the incomplete well.

Why anyone had left it half finished and uncovered like this, Fleur could not imagine, but she was thankful that she heard no sound of water, indicating that while the baby was stuck, she was at least not now for the moment in danger of drowning.

She tried her best to soothe the frightened baby, minutes feeling like hours as they passed slowly by until the first help began to arrive.

"We've got ropes," Deir said, as he ran as fast as he could to Fleur's side. "Here, shine the light down there and look." he gave Fleur his wrist lamp, and she could verify that the baby was stuck but was not submerged. "There is no water, who started digging here and,"

"This well is old," Deir explained. "It had been covered, before the storms by a small structure. This is not one of the new ones."

"How do we get her out?" Pace shouted frantically.

"We can't make the hole bigger with the large equipment," Deir explained. "The ground is too unstable here, and was prone to collapse. That is why the newer wells are not going here."

"No one can fit down there to use hand tools, it's too small a space." Deir's fellow law enforcement officer, Thand, decided. "Unless we send one of the children,"

"No." Fleur said, rolling up her sleeves. "I can fit."

Both men eyed her, from head to toe.

"We don't have time to argue! You have to send me down there. The baby keeps trying to shift position, and if the land gives way she will fall, or be," she saw the terror in Pace's eyes and stopped. "Give me the rope."

She took it from the awestruck Deir and began to tie it around her waist. "Do you know how to make a strong knot, Constable?"

"I...do," Deir stuttered.

"Then make one now." Fleur handed him the ends of the rope. "If you please."

More people had come to see what the fuss was, and Thand begged them to stay back. "Please, the ground is unstable," he pleaded. "Stay back, and be ready to bring more supplies if we need them."

Deir stepped back and regarded Fleur, now harnessed by the rope. "Are you certain?"

"Just hold on tight, will you?" She asked, ready to descend. "I need something to dig with. Anyone have any tools?"

Deir had a small hammer on the tool belt he was also wearing, having spent the afternoon working double duty in construction. "This is it."

"It will have to work. Pace," Fleur grabbed the boy by his shoulders. "Help Deir hold the rope. I'm going to get her out."

Pace nodded, and the three men all held tightly to the end of the rope as Fleur took the hammer into her hand and got down onto her knees so they could lower her head first into the hole. She switched the wrist lamp onto high, and uttered a silent prayer as she felt herself descend into darkness.

-=Meanwhile, at the construction site of the new Temple...=-

"You have done remarkable work here, Prylar Delle." The visitor was amazed as he heard story after story of the work underway. "As soon as I speak to the Assembly I will simply insist that you have earned the right to a more proper title. You will be a Vedek before the month is out."

"I care not for title, Vedek," Delle answered honestly, "I just want to do all I can to keep our momentum going."

"The title, and the station it will grant you in the Assembly will allow you to do that." Jariel insisted. "You are a good woman, Delle. You will learn, as I have, to use power and influence in the only way that is right, to help as many as you can in your lifetime."

"I can't thank you enough, Vedek Jariel. You may have grown up in Altaan, but your heart is very much that of a son of the Plains."

"Thank you." Jariel blushed slightly. "Tell me something now, will you? I have heard the wildest tales, gossip and rumor mostly and I despise both." Jariel paced back and forth as he spoke. "I have been unable to get any official information to confirm or deny these things from the Assembly or the Government. They seem to be embarrassed by the very question."

"What question is that?"

"Did an off-worlder come here with aid to the Plains awhile ago? Has that action been a catalyst for change here?"

"That is a fact." Delle began. "She,"

The sound of shouting stopped her speech.

"Prylar, there's been an accident. Hurry."

"Excuse me," Delle hurried as fast as her old legs could carry her, and Camen followed a step behind, ready to render any aid he could.

-=At the well=-

"Are you all right, Fleur?" Deir called, straining to see down the dark well shaft. Fleur's light had disappeared as she lowered.

"I need another rope!" Fleur shouted, realizing that if the ground gave way, she wanted the baby to be tied to some manner of lifeline.

"Sending down," Pace called, lowering the second rope. Fleur could only reach the baby's one arm, which was stuck up above her head. The baby had stopped crying, and Fleur could only hope the eerie silence meant that she was too tired to continue, not that she had been cut off from her supply of oxygen by her awkward position.

She looped the rope under the baby's small armpit, brought it back up and tied it as tightly as she could. Then she tied it to her own rope.

She began to chip away then at the ground just beside the baby, all the while fighting overwhelming dizziness and a wave of nausea as the blood rushed from the rest of her body into her head.

She had barely begun to try to free some wiggle room for the baby when the sandy walls began to collapse around them.

Fleur could only shriek, not even having time to get out an articulate plea for help as the baby, and she, began to fall.

She grasped the child as they both fell past the narrowest point in the well, stopping as the rope holding Fleur snapped taut.

Above at ground level, Deir called for more people to help hold the rope, as they began to fight the drag of the unfeeling ground as it filled in around the woman and child, trying to suck them away and claim their lives as its own.

"Collapse!" Deir cried frantically, "PULL!"

Jariel dove forward as he saw what was happening, and everyone pulled as hard as they could.

After what seemed an eternity, the sound of coughing was heard, and Gillan Pace felt he may lose consciousness at the sight of the gasping Le Marc, and the still form of his baby sister.

"No," He fell to his knees, collapsing and releasing his hold on the rope only after he was certain it was safe to let go. "Tress,"

Fleur was already pulling the baby's clothing from her body, as she sputtered out clouds of dusty earth that she had inhaled, she shook the baby. "Tress, come on," She pressed the little girl's chest. "Breathe!"
Deir rushed forward, prepared to use his first aid skills to help in any way he could, but before he could begin Tress opened her mouth and eyes, gasped deeply and wailed.

A shout went up from the assembled crowd. "Where is that medkit I asked for!" Deir raised his voice above the jubilation of the group. "They're hurt. I need supplies."

Standing still, and still holding on to the very end of the rope, Vedek Jariel watched in suspended animation as this tall, handsome figure of a man who appeared to be in charge of the scene turned to the tiny, dirt covered woman before him.
She was bruised, and bloodied, but despite the changes in her appearance, Jariel would know this woman anywhere. Even though he recognized her, it was still a shock to hear her name when Deir spoke it a moment later.

"Are you all right, Fleur? Anything broken?"

"I do not think so," Fleur continued to cough. "Water. Please."

Someone handed a bottle of water forward from the back of the crowd, and Jariel watched as Fleur took it and instead of drinking it, used it to begin washing the dirt and grime from the baby's eyes, using her bare, skinned hands to do the job.

She spoke softly and tenderly to the baby, who apparently knew her. Tress reached out and touched tiny fingers to Fleur's face, and Fleur burst into tears.

"Sweet girl," she cried softly. Then she began to whisper words of adoration to the child in French.

Someone rushed forward with a blanket for Fleur's shoulders, and water for her as well. She unhesitatingly dumped the bottle over her head to clean her face and eyes, then used the blanket to wipe her skin before putting it over her shoulders.

"Is she all right?" Fleur asked as the local medic assessed the baby's condition.

"I think so. We'll look her over more thoroughly back at camp. You too, Fleur. Come now." The woman shepherded Fleur gently forward, through the throngs of those who wanted to congratulate her.

"Wait, before I go anywhere," Fleur stopped dead in her tracks, "Someone cover that goddamn hole."

She waited until she saw men with wood planks in hand, and refused to move until she was satisfied that they were hard at work doing just that.

As she made her way back toward camp, an eerie feeling came over her.

Then, she heard her name; spoken softly from behind her by a most familiar voice.

She hesitated for a moment, but could not find the strength to turn around and face him.

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Fleur Le Marc
Currently on Bajor