Introductory Note:
I apologise in advance - I know that my guest star is probably unknown to most of you. The Mr Men books/TV series aren't that widely known in North America. But I grew up with the series and love them, and now I'm reading the books to my kids so it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the challenge and I couldn't resist going for it!
However, the wonders of Wikipedia mean I can explain who I'm talking about before we start (don't worry, it's not going to spoil the story to read up on the guest star beforehand - just think of it as a pre-title credit sequence
)
The Mr Men series
Mr Worry - the special guest
and on with the show
August Writing Challenge: A Familiar Face
3,000 words
Chief O'Brien surveyed the Ops center with a sigh. He rubbed his eyes; he hadn't slept well in days, convinced that at any moment the entire station was going to collapse around him, because he was never able to take the time needed to properly re-engineer all the systems.
His commbadge beeped, it was Ensign Tarakides sounding very nervous. "Uh, Chief? Could you come down here? To Cargo Bay 5? I, uh, I need your help. There's been an unauthorised beam-in. He says he's very sorry, he must have taken a wrong turn."
"Who does?" O'Brien asked.
"Ah... Could you just come down here, sir?"
O'Brien raised his eyebrows and shrugged, "Okay, Ensign. I'm on my way."
Commander Sisko had been listening. "I'll come with you Chief." He turned to Major Kira who working at the Ops station, "Major, you're in charge."
* * *
When O'Brien saw who was standing on the transporter pad, he stopped dead in his tracks in amazement. It was a small round blue figure, in height it came up to O'Brien's waist. It had a cheerful smile, a small red nose, bright black eyes and its forehead was covered with curvy lines.
"You have got to be kidding me!" O'Brien muttered.
The figure on the transporter pad grinned sheepishly and waved a small blue hand.
"Do you know this person?" Sisko asked.
"Umm," O'Brien paused, "possibly," he said carefully. He took a step towards the transporter pad. "Are you, could you be, Mr Worry?"
The small blue figure grinned broadly, "How wonderful!" he said enthusiastically, "I didn't expect anyone to have heard of me these days. Is my book still read?"
He took step forwards, the containment field crackled alarmingly, and he jumped backwards, "Heavens!" he stuttered and very carefully stayed where he was, "Yes, I'm Mr Worry. Dreadfully sorry to be dropping in uninvited. I'm meant to be at the Happyland Lending Library, I'm taking Mr Quiet to dinner, it's his birthday. This is the last time I take one of Mr Impossible's short-cuts, I can tell you. Where am I, by the way?"
Commander Sisko coughed, "You are on the Federation Station Deep Space Nine. I am Commander Sisko and I am in command here," he said sternly.
Mr Worry was over-awed, "Crikey!" was all he could manage in response.
Sisko turned to O'Brien, "How do you know this Worry?" he asked.
"Ah... He's..." O'Brien realised that no matter how he tried to phrase it, this was going to sound insane, so he just went for it. "He's a character from a children's book. One of Molly's favourites."
Ensign Tarakides nodded, "I thought I recognised him from the times I've baby-sat for you, Chief."
Sisko swallowed, "A character from a book? Not one of the 'rumpelstiltskin' aliens again?"
O'Brien shook his head, "I don't think so sir, they just appeared. Mr Worry came by transporter."
"Good point. Still, we need to get him back to where he came from. Until then he's to be treated as a welcome guest. I'll get Odo to assign one of his security team to help him settle in."
"If you don't mind, sir, I'd like him to stay with me and the family. He's going to be pretty lost on the station and I can't see a security officer calming him down. At least I know who he is!"
Sisko thought for a moment, "If you're sure you want to, you can," he said finally. "But if you get any sense of trouble, call Odo immediately."
"Yes sir."
"Right then, you take our guest home, I'll tell Odo he's here and that he's staying with you."
With that, Commander Sisko nodded briskly to Mr Worry and left the transporter room. Mr Worry watched him go.
"Am I in trouble?" he asked O'Brien in a worried tone.
O'Brien smiled reassuringly, "No, you'll be allright, you're a guest on the station until we can figure out getting you home. Come on, you're going to stay with me and my family while we sort everything out." O'Brien turned to Tarakides, "Switch off the containment, would you Marissa?"
"Sure thing, Chief."
The containment field fizzled as it switched off, and Mr Worry carefully reached out an arm and waved it in front of himself to see if it was safe to move. Satisfied that it was, he picked up his small suitcase and stepped down off the transporter pad. O'Brien lead the way out of the transporter room, Mr Worry waved goodbye to Ensign Tarakides and trotted to catch up with O'Brien.
O'Brien set off towards the turbo-lift to get to the Promenade. When Mr Worry saw the view out of one of the viewports, he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Look at all the stars!" he whispered awestruck.
O'Brien heard him and turned round, he smiled at the look of wonder in Mr Worry's face. "Have you not been in space before?" he asked.
Mr Worry shook his head, "No, never even left Earth. We Men live a quiet life, nothing like this! Wait until I tell Mr Small! He's the adventurous one, but even he hasn't gone this far!"
"Earth? Our Earth?" asked O'Brien incredulously.
"Oh yes." Mr Worry smiled. "In another... whatsit... dimension to yours. Mr Clever figured it out ages ago. We pop over from time to time to visit, help out. Mr Small used to live in your dimension - he loves it. I'm more of a stayhome Man, I like my little cottage."
"And the stories, where did they come from?"
"Well, they started just like it says in Mr Small's book. He met Mr Hargreaves and told him all about himself. We all visited quite a lot then. Less so these days, it's a different world - we don't fit in so well."
"Are you..." O'Brien wasn't sure how to phrase the question, "Are you... immortal then?"
"Oh, now that's a question for Mr Quiet, he's the thinker of all of us. I don't know. I know we've always been here and that your world has changed far more than ours." Mr Worry shook his head, his furrows deepening, "I don't think I want to know any more than that. Just in case it's bad news!"
O'Brien smiled, "I understand. Sorry, it's the engineer in me - I like to have answers! Come on, let's get you home. My little girl will love to meet you!"
Just as they reached the door to O'Brien's quarters, the door opened and Molly barrelled out calling "Mr Worry!" in a high-pitched squeal. She flung her arms round the blushing Mr Worry and enveloped him in a bear-hug.
Keiko followed a few steps behind, "Now Molly," she said laughing, "I think even the Mr Men need to breathe. Let Mr Worry go so we can all go inside for some supper."
Molly blushed and dropped her arms, "Sorry," she whispered.
"Absolutely not a problem!" Mr Worry said kindly, "I don't get many hugs from pretty girls. Could you show me where I can leave my suitcase before supper?"
He held out his hand for her to take, and together they walked into the apartment.
Later that evening, after everyone else was asleep, Mr Worry sat in the guest room and worried. He carefully reviewed each thing he was worried about, made sure that it had its place in the back of his mind, looked to see if there was a course of action to be followed and if there was noted it, and then moved to the next item. Once each worry was accounted for, he could relax and go to sleep.
Unfortunately tonight there was a new worry, and it wouldn't settle down in his mind. How was he to get home? He didn't have the scientific ability to know what was possible and what was not, Mr Worry stretched out his short legs and tried to relax, If he couldn't get home, what would he do? Stay here on the station? That wouldn't be so bad. There were so many odd looking people, no-one would find a small round blue fellow strange at all.
But he'd miss his home, and his chess games with Mr Quiet. It was a small life, but it was his and he did rather want it back.
A quiet knock on the door to the guest room interrupted his reverie, and Molly's head appeared around the door.
"Mr Worry?" she whispered. "Can I come in?"
Mr Worry smiled, "Of course," he said.
Molly tip-toed in and clamboured up onto the bed. "Are you worried about getting home?" she asked.
Mr Worry nodded, "I don't know what to do. Mr Impossible got me here, which means it's probably impossible to get me home."
Molly paused and then said seriously, "Could you help me with something, Mr Worry?"
"Certainly, if I'm able. What would you like me to do?"
"Could you talk to my daddy? He worries too much. Could you help him not worry?"
"Well, worrying isn't always a bad thing, you remember in my story - I wasn't happy when I had nothing to worry about because that worried me even more! But yes, I'll do what I can."
Molly smiled brightly, "Thank you!" she said, as she slid down off the bed. She ran over to the door, "And don't worry about getting home. Daddy's good at impossible things, he fixes them all the time!" she said as she left.
Mr Worry chuckled and mentally wrote "Mr O'Brien" next to his worry about getting home. He felt better immediately.
* * *
The next morning, Chief O'Brien suggested taking Mr Worry to Quark's for breakfast. "Might as well show you the sights," he said as they walked along the Promenade.
Mr Worry was overwhelmed by the noise and bustle of Quark's bar - even at breakfast time, there were people playing games, others talking loudly and people moving in and out all the time.
"Crikey!" whispered Mr Worry, "Is everywhere always so busy?"
O'Brien lead him over to a table up on the balcony where it was quieter, "Sorry - it's always a bit of a scrum getting in, but this is definitely the place to get a view of life on the station."
Mr Worry shook his head, "I don't think I could cope with this many people - too many variables, too many things to worry about!"
O'Brien laughed, "Well for now, worry about what you'd like for breakfast."
Mr Worry brightened up, "Oh, that's easy! Bacon and eggs please!"
O'Brien thought for a minute, "I'd better get that myself - it'll take all morning to explain it to Rom. Back in a minute."
Mr Worry sat quietly, staring at everything going on around him while he waited for O'Brien to return with breakfast. It really was amazing how many different sorts of people there were here. Mr Tickle would have a field day, he chuckled to himself. Once he got over his panic at the crowd he began to enjoy himself, and started saying hello to the people walking by, some of them were very friendly and stopped to chat, which pleased Mr Worry even if he did get a little embarrassed by the revealing dresses the ladies wore.
O'Brien went up to the replicator and started programming in bacon and eggs. He was just waiting for it to finish running the calculations when Bashir came over.
"Who's the blue guy with the English accent chatting up the Dabo girls?" Bashir asked.
"Hmm? Oh, he's Mr Worry. Transporter glitch brought him here, we need to get him home."
"Interesting." commented Bashir, "Don't think I remember meeting any blue people when I was over at Cambridge."
O'Brien stood up straight, "What did you just say?"
Bashir laughed, "I was joking. I said I didn't meet any blue people at Cambridge."
"But why Cambridge?" O'Brien persisted.
"Oh," Bashir thought for a minute, "Well, that's where his accent's from. Well, Norfolk anyway. By the sea."
O'Brien clapped Bashir on the arm, "You've got it! Here, hold this." and he thrust Mr Worry's breakfast into Bashir's hands, "Come on. Come meet Mr Worry."
O'Brien lead the way back to Mr Worry's table, "Mr Worry, I'd like you to meet Dr Julian Bashir."
Mr Worry smiled, "Oh hello!"
O'Brien gave Mr Worry his breakfast and sat down, "Dr Bashir says you have a Norfolk accent, is that right?"
Mr Worry chewed a mouthful and swallowed, "Yes. Well spotted Doctor. Are you from England?"
Bashir smiled and shook his head, "No. But I've an ear for accents, and I worked in the hospital at Cambridge for a while."
"So, in your dimension it's still the same part of England?" O'Brien asked Mr Worry.
"Oh yes," Mr Worry said, "I mean, the buildings and roads and whatnot are different, but the land itself is the same. We call some of them different things of course but it's the same place. Umm... could I have a cup of tea do you think? Milk, two sugars?"
"I'll get it," Bashir said, "Chief, do you want a coffee?"
"Please, this is going to be a busy day, I think." He looked over to Mr Worry and smiled, "I think I can get you home!" he announced, "But I'll need help."
O'Brien tapped his comm-badge, "Chief O'Brien to Major Kira."
Kira here, What can I do for you Chief?
Mr Worry was most surprised to hear a voice coming out of O'Brien's badge.
"Do you have some time to help me get our stranded traveller home, Major?"
Definitely got time. Where are you?
"Quark's"
Her laugh came through the comm-badge clearly, Order me a raktajino, I'm on my way
Bashir arrived at that point, he put the mugs of tea and coffee down and turned to go again, "I heard her. Back in a mo."
In the relative peace with only O'Brien at the table, Mr Worry leaned over to him, "Mr O'Brien," he said, "forgive me for bringing this up, but you look like a man who worries. As you can imagine, I'm something of an expert in that area."
O'Brien rubbed his eyes, "Yeah, I guess you are at that. It's nothing, just, I have the station to look after and at the moment it's held together with baling twine and good luck, and then there's Molly and Keiko. I love having them here - couldn't be away from them, but this isn't really a good place yet for a family." He sighed. "There's a lot of things on my mind."
Mr Worry looked at O'Brien's tired face, "And it's stopping you from sleeping." He paused, "You know what I do before I go to bed? I go through all the worries I have, and any that I know there's a solution for, or someone else is looking after, well I move those to the back of the list." He waggled his fingers, which O'Brien surmised was a shrug for these people who had no shoulders, "Well, it helps me sleep anyway."
O'Brien's thought silently, sipping his coffee. "I guess you mean," he said slowly, "That once I give a task to someone I need to trust them and stop worrying about it."
Mr Worry smiled, "well, maybe not stop completely - just worry less. Leaves more space on the furrows for the important stuff." He rubbed the wavy lines on his forehead.
O'Brien laughed, "That I think I can do!"
"Do what?" asked Dr Bashir, as he returned with Kira.
"Worry less," replied O'Brien.
"It would be good for your health if you did." Bashir said sternly.
"What do you need from me?," Kira asked abruptly before an argument could erupt. She turned to Mr Worry with a smile, "I'm Kira Nerys, first officer."
Mr Worry blushed and stammered into his tea.
O'Brien took a mouthful of his coffee and then started to explain, "Right, Mr Worry here is from Earth, but a different dimension. Heaven only knows how he managed to get here but we need to get him home. Which I thought was going to be impossible, but it just occured to me, all we need to do is get him back to our Earth since Mr Worry can do the dimension jump by himself. Right?" O'Brien looked to Mr Worry for confirmation.
"Correct. We don't travel much these days but it is still done, I'll be able to switch over once I'm back on familiar ground."
"So," Kira repeated, "What do you need from me?"
"Well we can't just put him on a shuttle, he doesn't have papers for one thing, so we need someone to take him to within transporter range of earth and beam him to co-ordinates that we'll calculate. And, well, I was hoping you might know someone trustworthy who wouldn't ask too many questions." O'Brien said hopefully, "I could pay them latinum."
Kira thought for a moment, then smiled, 'I think I might. Get me the co-ordinates, I'll get you a ship and a pilot."
"I'll help Mr Worry find his house on the map," Bashir volunteered, "I know the area - between us we should be able to find some familiar landmarks.
* * *
Mr Worry stood at the air-lock, holding his suitcase. O'Brien had come with Molly to say a final goodbye. Although he was glad to be going home, Mr Worry realied would miss this busy, chaotic place and he was very glad that he had had the opportunity to see it. He decided that he would get Mr Clever and Mr Impossible to work together to create a permanent route from their world to the station. Mr Small would definitely want to see this place.
He gave Molly one last hug, shook hands with Chief O'Brien and then taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders in his best impression of Mr Strong and stepped through the door.
"I'll maybe see you again," he said with a smile.
I apologise in advance - I know that my guest star is probably unknown to most of you. The Mr Men books/TV series aren't that widely known in North America. But I grew up with the series and love them, and now I'm reading the books to my kids so it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the challenge and I couldn't resist going for it!
However, the wonders of Wikipedia mean I can explain who I'm talking about before we start (don't worry, it's not going to spoil the story to read up on the guest star beforehand - just think of it as a pre-title credit sequence
)The Mr Men series
Mr Worry - the special guest
and on with the show
August Writing Challenge: A Familiar Face
3,000 words
Chief O'Brien surveyed the Ops center with a sigh. He rubbed his eyes; he hadn't slept well in days, convinced that at any moment the entire station was going to collapse around him, because he was never able to take the time needed to properly re-engineer all the systems.
His commbadge beeped, it was Ensign Tarakides sounding very nervous. "Uh, Chief? Could you come down here? To Cargo Bay 5? I, uh, I need your help. There's been an unauthorised beam-in. He says he's very sorry, he must have taken a wrong turn."
"Who does?" O'Brien asked.
"Ah... Could you just come down here, sir?"
O'Brien raised his eyebrows and shrugged, "Okay, Ensign. I'm on my way."
Commander Sisko had been listening. "I'll come with you Chief." He turned to Major Kira who working at the Ops station, "Major, you're in charge."
* * *
When O'Brien saw who was standing on the transporter pad, he stopped dead in his tracks in amazement. It was a small round blue figure, in height it came up to O'Brien's waist. It had a cheerful smile, a small red nose, bright black eyes and its forehead was covered with curvy lines.
"You have got to be kidding me!" O'Brien muttered.
The figure on the transporter pad grinned sheepishly and waved a small blue hand.
"Do you know this person?" Sisko asked.
"Umm," O'Brien paused, "possibly," he said carefully. He took a step towards the transporter pad. "Are you, could you be, Mr Worry?"
The small blue figure grinned broadly, "How wonderful!" he said enthusiastically, "I didn't expect anyone to have heard of me these days. Is my book still read?"
He took step forwards, the containment field crackled alarmingly, and he jumped backwards, "Heavens!" he stuttered and very carefully stayed where he was, "Yes, I'm Mr Worry. Dreadfully sorry to be dropping in uninvited. I'm meant to be at the Happyland Lending Library, I'm taking Mr Quiet to dinner, it's his birthday. This is the last time I take one of Mr Impossible's short-cuts, I can tell you. Where am I, by the way?"
Commander Sisko coughed, "You are on the Federation Station Deep Space Nine. I am Commander Sisko and I am in command here," he said sternly.
Mr Worry was over-awed, "Crikey!" was all he could manage in response.
Sisko turned to O'Brien, "How do you know this Worry?" he asked.
"Ah... He's..." O'Brien realised that no matter how he tried to phrase it, this was going to sound insane, so he just went for it. "He's a character from a children's book. One of Molly's favourites."
Ensign Tarakides nodded, "I thought I recognised him from the times I've baby-sat for you, Chief."
Sisko swallowed, "A character from a book? Not one of the 'rumpelstiltskin' aliens again?"
O'Brien shook his head, "I don't think so sir, they just appeared. Mr Worry came by transporter."
"Good point. Still, we need to get him back to where he came from. Until then he's to be treated as a welcome guest. I'll get Odo to assign one of his security team to help him settle in."
"If you don't mind, sir, I'd like him to stay with me and the family. He's going to be pretty lost on the station and I can't see a security officer calming him down. At least I know who he is!"
Sisko thought for a moment, "If you're sure you want to, you can," he said finally. "But if you get any sense of trouble, call Odo immediately."
"Yes sir."
"Right then, you take our guest home, I'll tell Odo he's here and that he's staying with you."
With that, Commander Sisko nodded briskly to Mr Worry and left the transporter room. Mr Worry watched him go.
"Am I in trouble?" he asked O'Brien in a worried tone.
O'Brien smiled reassuringly, "No, you'll be allright, you're a guest on the station until we can figure out getting you home. Come on, you're going to stay with me and my family while we sort everything out." O'Brien turned to Tarakides, "Switch off the containment, would you Marissa?"
"Sure thing, Chief."
The containment field fizzled as it switched off, and Mr Worry carefully reached out an arm and waved it in front of himself to see if it was safe to move. Satisfied that it was, he picked up his small suitcase and stepped down off the transporter pad. O'Brien lead the way out of the transporter room, Mr Worry waved goodbye to Ensign Tarakides and trotted to catch up with O'Brien.
O'Brien set off towards the turbo-lift to get to the Promenade. When Mr Worry saw the view out of one of the viewports, he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Look at all the stars!" he whispered awestruck.
O'Brien heard him and turned round, he smiled at the look of wonder in Mr Worry's face. "Have you not been in space before?" he asked.
Mr Worry shook his head, "No, never even left Earth. We Men live a quiet life, nothing like this! Wait until I tell Mr Small! He's the adventurous one, but even he hasn't gone this far!"
"Earth? Our Earth?" asked O'Brien incredulously.
"Oh yes." Mr Worry smiled. "In another... whatsit... dimension to yours. Mr Clever figured it out ages ago. We pop over from time to time to visit, help out. Mr Small used to live in your dimension - he loves it. I'm more of a stayhome Man, I like my little cottage."
"And the stories, where did they come from?"
"Well, they started just like it says in Mr Small's book. He met Mr Hargreaves and told him all about himself. We all visited quite a lot then. Less so these days, it's a different world - we don't fit in so well."
"Are you..." O'Brien wasn't sure how to phrase the question, "Are you... immortal then?"
"Oh, now that's a question for Mr Quiet, he's the thinker of all of us. I don't know. I know we've always been here and that your world has changed far more than ours." Mr Worry shook his head, his furrows deepening, "I don't think I want to know any more than that. Just in case it's bad news!"
O'Brien smiled, "I understand. Sorry, it's the engineer in me - I like to have answers! Come on, let's get you home. My little girl will love to meet you!"
Just as they reached the door to O'Brien's quarters, the door opened and Molly barrelled out calling "Mr Worry!" in a high-pitched squeal. She flung her arms round the blushing Mr Worry and enveloped him in a bear-hug.
Keiko followed a few steps behind, "Now Molly," she said laughing, "I think even the Mr Men need to breathe. Let Mr Worry go so we can all go inside for some supper."
Molly blushed and dropped her arms, "Sorry," she whispered.
"Absolutely not a problem!" Mr Worry said kindly, "I don't get many hugs from pretty girls. Could you show me where I can leave my suitcase before supper?"
He held out his hand for her to take, and together they walked into the apartment.
Later that evening, after everyone else was asleep, Mr Worry sat in the guest room and worried. He carefully reviewed each thing he was worried about, made sure that it had its place in the back of his mind, looked to see if there was a course of action to be followed and if there was noted it, and then moved to the next item. Once each worry was accounted for, he could relax and go to sleep.
Unfortunately tonight there was a new worry, and it wouldn't settle down in his mind. How was he to get home? He didn't have the scientific ability to know what was possible and what was not, Mr Worry stretched out his short legs and tried to relax, If he couldn't get home, what would he do? Stay here on the station? That wouldn't be so bad. There were so many odd looking people, no-one would find a small round blue fellow strange at all.
But he'd miss his home, and his chess games with Mr Quiet. It was a small life, but it was his and he did rather want it back.
A quiet knock on the door to the guest room interrupted his reverie, and Molly's head appeared around the door.
"Mr Worry?" she whispered. "Can I come in?"
Mr Worry smiled, "Of course," he said.
Molly tip-toed in and clamboured up onto the bed. "Are you worried about getting home?" she asked.
Mr Worry nodded, "I don't know what to do. Mr Impossible got me here, which means it's probably impossible to get me home."
Molly paused and then said seriously, "Could you help me with something, Mr Worry?"
"Certainly, if I'm able. What would you like me to do?"
"Could you talk to my daddy? He worries too much. Could you help him not worry?"
"Well, worrying isn't always a bad thing, you remember in my story - I wasn't happy when I had nothing to worry about because that worried me even more! But yes, I'll do what I can."
Molly smiled brightly, "Thank you!" she said, as she slid down off the bed. She ran over to the door, "And don't worry about getting home. Daddy's good at impossible things, he fixes them all the time!" she said as she left.
Mr Worry chuckled and mentally wrote "Mr O'Brien" next to his worry about getting home. He felt better immediately.
* * *
The next morning, Chief O'Brien suggested taking Mr Worry to Quark's for breakfast. "Might as well show you the sights," he said as they walked along the Promenade.
Mr Worry was overwhelmed by the noise and bustle of Quark's bar - even at breakfast time, there were people playing games, others talking loudly and people moving in and out all the time.
"Crikey!" whispered Mr Worry, "Is everywhere always so busy?"
O'Brien lead him over to a table up on the balcony where it was quieter, "Sorry - it's always a bit of a scrum getting in, but this is definitely the place to get a view of life on the station."
Mr Worry shook his head, "I don't think I could cope with this many people - too many variables, too many things to worry about!"
O'Brien laughed, "Well for now, worry about what you'd like for breakfast."
Mr Worry brightened up, "Oh, that's easy! Bacon and eggs please!"
O'Brien thought for a minute, "I'd better get that myself - it'll take all morning to explain it to Rom. Back in a minute."
Mr Worry sat quietly, staring at everything going on around him while he waited for O'Brien to return with breakfast. It really was amazing how many different sorts of people there were here. Mr Tickle would have a field day, he chuckled to himself. Once he got over his panic at the crowd he began to enjoy himself, and started saying hello to the people walking by, some of them were very friendly and stopped to chat, which pleased Mr Worry even if he did get a little embarrassed by the revealing dresses the ladies wore.
O'Brien went up to the replicator and started programming in bacon and eggs. He was just waiting for it to finish running the calculations when Bashir came over.
"Who's the blue guy with the English accent chatting up the Dabo girls?" Bashir asked.
"Hmm? Oh, he's Mr Worry. Transporter glitch brought him here, we need to get him home."
"Interesting." commented Bashir, "Don't think I remember meeting any blue people when I was over at Cambridge."
O'Brien stood up straight, "What did you just say?"
Bashir laughed, "I was joking. I said I didn't meet any blue people at Cambridge."
"But why Cambridge?" O'Brien persisted.
"Oh," Bashir thought for a minute, "Well, that's where his accent's from. Well, Norfolk anyway. By the sea."
O'Brien clapped Bashir on the arm, "You've got it! Here, hold this." and he thrust Mr Worry's breakfast into Bashir's hands, "Come on. Come meet Mr Worry."
O'Brien lead the way back to Mr Worry's table, "Mr Worry, I'd like you to meet Dr Julian Bashir."
Mr Worry smiled, "Oh hello!"
O'Brien gave Mr Worry his breakfast and sat down, "Dr Bashir says you have a Norfolk accent, is that right?"
Mr Worry chewed a mouthful and swallowed, "Yes. Well spotted Doctor. Are you from England?"
Bashir smiled and shook his head, "No. But I've an ear for accents, and I worked in the hospital at Cambridge for a while."
"So, in your dimension it's still the same part of England?" O'Brien asked Mr Worry.
"Oh yes," Mr Worry said, "I mean, the buildings and roads and whatnot are different, but the land itself is the same. We call some of them different things of course but it's the same place. Umm... could I have a cup of tea do you think? Milk, two sugars?"
"I'll get it," Bashir said, "Chief, do you want a coffee?"
"Please, this is going to be a busy day, I think." He looked over to Mr Worry and smiled, "I think I can get you home!" he announced, "But I'll need help."
O'Brien tapped his comm-badge, "Chief O'Brien to Major Kira."
Kira here, What can I do for you Chief?
Mr Worry was most surprised to hear a voice coming out of O'Brien's badge.
"Do you have some time to help me get our stranded traveller home, Major?"
Definitely got time. Where are you?
"Quark's"
Her laugh came through the comm-badge clearly, Order me a raktajino, I'm on my way
Bashir arrived at that point, he put the mugs of tea and coffee down and turned to go again, "I heard her. Back in a mo."
In the relative peace with only O'Brien at the table, Mr Worry leaned over to him, "Mr O'Brien," he said, "forgive me for bringing this up, but you look like a man who worries. As you can imagine, I'm something of an expert in that area."
O'Brien rubbed his eyes, "Yeah, I guess you are at that. It's nothing, just, I have the station to look after and at the moment it's held together with baling twine and good luck, and then there's Molly and Keiko. I love having them here - couldn't be away from them, but this isn't really a good place yet for a family." He sighed. "There's a lot of things on my mind."
Mr Worry looked at O'Brien's tired face, "And it's stopping you from sleeping." He paused, "You know what I do before I go to bed? I go through all the worries I have, and any that I know there's a solution for, or someone else is looking after, well I move those to the back of the list." He waggled his fingers, which O'Brien surmised was a shrug for these people who had no shoulders, "Well, it helps me sleep anyway."
O'Brien's thought silently, sipping his coffee. "I guess you mean," he said slowly, "That once I give a task to someone I need to trust them and stop worrying about it."
Mr Worry smiled, "well, maybe not stop completely - just worry less. Leaves more space on the furrows for the important stuff." He rubbed the wavy lines on his forehead.
O'Brien laughed, "That I think I can do!"
"Do what?" asked Dr Bashir, as he returned with Kira.
"Worry less," replied O'Brien.
"It would be good for your health if you did." Bashir said sternly.
"What do you need from me?," Kira asked abruptly before an argument could erupt. She turned to Mr Worry with a smile, "I'm Kira Nerys, first officer."
Mr Worry blushed and stammered into his tea.
O'Brien took a mouthful of his coffee and then started to explain, "Right, Mr Worry here is from Earth, but a different dimension. Heaven only knows how he managed to get here but we need to get him home. Which I thought was going to be impossible, but it just occured to me, all we need to do is get him back to our Earth since Mr Worry can do the dimension jump by himself. Right?" O'Brien looked to Mr Worry for confirmation.
"Correct. We don't travel much these days but it is still done, I'll be able to switch over once I'm back on familiar ground."
"So," Kira repeated, "What do you need from me?"
"Well we can't just put him on a shuttle, he doesn't have papers for one thing, so we need someone to take him to within transporter range of earth and beam him to co-ordinates that we'll calculate. And, well, I was hoping you might know someone trustworthy who wouldn't ask too many questions." O'Brien said hopefully, "I could pay them latinum."
Kira thought for a moment, then smiled, 'I think I might. Get me the co-ordinates, I'll get you a ship and a pilot."
"I'll help Mr Worry find his house on the map," Bashir volunteered, "I know the area - between us we should be able to find some familiar landmarks.
* * *
Mr Worry stood at the air-lock, holding his suitcase. O'Brien had come with Molly to say a final goodbye. Although he was glad to be going home, Mr Worry realied would miss this busy, chaotic place and he was very glad that he had had the opportunity to see it. He decided that he would get Mr Clever and Mr Impossible to work together to create a permanent route from their world to the station. Mr Small would definitely want to see this place.
He gave Molly one last hug, shook hands with Chief O'Brien and then taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders in his best impression of Mr Strong and stepped through the door.
"I'll maybe see you again," he said with a smile.
)
