The Casualty «Dukat/Damar & OFC» 🔞 ✔️

12. Stable environment

The morning after the party, she found it quite difficult to get up. Nyran did not drink much in general and when she did, her choice alcohol was k'hava wine, a light sweet drink, but her company insisted on shots of kanar and it all got a little out of hand. She was just glad she did not drink enough to end up dancing on a table or to let Gul Zessad get all over her on the way home, and despite the slight headache, fatigue and immense thirst was quite able to start another day of work.

I'll bet Corat is having more trouble right now -- if he's even up yet, she thought. She wondered if he had his female friend sleep over. The way she batted her eyes at him the whole night, Nyran severely doubted that she would have left without saying a proper good-night to him. In his quarters, in his bed, under his blanket. Ugh.

"Get a grip, woman!" she cursed, shook her head violently and forced herself to focus on her morning routine -- only this time she let her shower* run considerably longer.

When she got to the palace and entered the Command center, Damar was not there yet. She thought about going to his quarters to wake him up, but she was afraid of what she could find there. Unless Weyoun ordered her to do it, she would not go. Instead, she closed herself in her little office and buried herself in work.

Damar came to the command center not long after her -- but he was not alone. Nyran heard a woman's laughter through the door and her heart sank. She looked up and through the glass panes she saw his companion from yesterday, the tall and attractive young Cardassian. It seemed that the things she did with him under his blanket were not just good-nights, but good-mornings as well. Yuck.

She considered not going out there until she left, but it seemed like she planned to stay a while. Nyran had a report waiting for Damar -- it was coming an hour late already and she hated the idea of not doing her job just because some coquette was hanging around where she was not supposed to be. So she fixed her hair and dress, suddenly painfully aware that she was not at a party anymore and looked just as mundane as every day at work, took a deep breath and went out the door.

"Your report, Legate Damar," she stated dryly after she politely cleared her throat.

They both turned around to look at her. While Damar's smile quickly evaporated and his face filled with a kind of stubborn shame -- he did not like having to feel ashamed of the way he was dealing with workplace stress, but could not help it -- the woman's smile widened instead.

"Oh, isn't this Gul Dukat's ex-fiancée?" she wondered sweetly. "I had no idea she worked for you. Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Siana," she outstretched her arm towards Nyran, offering a hand.

"Hi," she shot her with her best fake smile and shook her hand. It was not the woman's fault that Nyran was in love with the man she had just slept with. "Nyran, nice to meet you. Your report, sir?" she turned to Damar, a professional coolness settling over her face once again.

"I'll be right there, Yaren, thank you," he dismissed her. Nyran gave him a polite smile, trying not to grit her teeth audibly, and turned away.

Siana then whispered loudly to Damar, either thinking Nyran was deaf, or not caring that she could hear her:

"She doesn't look that irresistible," she deemed. "How did she even claw her way into Dukat's bedroom? I thought he was a man of taste. Or maybe I'm just not into aliens," she laughed, waving her hand. Disgust creeped into Damar's expression, but he pretended to laugh at her joke.

Nyran's eyes bugged and she seriously considered calling security to remove the woman, but Weyoun chose that moment to enter from the other side. Nyran was curious to see how he would react to the blatant breach of command center protocol, so she quietly hung back by the door to Damar's office.